Smoke on the Wind

by Sean Benjamin

  Raferty retired to his stateroom. He had insisted on taking an empty stateroom rather than Levant’s flag officer quarters which would cause a chain reaction as senior officers bumped people below them, and it worked its way down the ranks. He had moved into an empty junior officer’s stateroom, and Tactical took the empty stateroom on the other side of their shared head. He was just sitting down on his rack when there was on knock on his hatch to the head. Tactical had gone to her stateroom and come through the head to knock on his hatch. She opened the hatch without waiting for a reply. She entered and took the only available seat, the chair to the small desk. She smiled slightly as she leaned forward and put her elbows on her knees. They looked at each other for several seconds.

  Tactical said, “You came up with about three plans in three minutes out there. You seem less than sure about any of them. In fact, this whole adventure seems to be wearing on you. What is it?”

  Rafe looked down in thought and then at his sister. He said in a soft voice. “I really don’t know. I think I’m just tired. I’m starting to wonder if we’re getting anywhere in the grand scheme of things.” He gestured around the stateroom. “Not just here on this mission, but everything. How many ships have we lost in the last year plus? Desperado, Vandal, Scoundrel, Rebel.” He paused and then added quietly, “Bandit.” He stared into his sister’s eyes. “It has been a drain, but it was always flotilla business so that made a difference. It was a cause that everyone had a stake in. This time the flotilla is here for me not for any ideal. If we lose any ships, I don’t know how I will take it. I keep wanting a foolproof plan where nobody on our side dies. Unless I’m willing to find some nuclear weapons and throw them at the Metal Moon and Rurik, I don’t think there is such a plan.”

  Tactical smiled. “Nuclear weapons might be a bit drastic.” She got serious. “You made it clear our people had a choice. Well, they made their choice to come with you so let it go. They’re all big kids.”

  Hawkins nodded but warmed to his subject. “It’s also the Queen. She is putting all her chips on this campaign. If I screw it up, we lose ships and people, and she will lose her only chance to influence the war. I don’t want to let her down by losing battles or getting the majority of my force destroyed in the process of winning a fight.”

  Tactical shook her head to disagree. “I think it’s more than that. Something else is bothering you. I think it’s Skyler Mallory dying and Killian getting wounded. I think the toll of years of fighting and casualties is catching up to you.” She gave him a stern look. “If we win here and in the Badlands, it will all be worth it. If we lose, then one death was too much, let alone the thousands we have endured or caused in the Badlands. We are in too deep now. We can’t give up. We can be defeated, but we can’t give up. There are far too many ghosts for us to just quit.”

  Rafe thought about that for a few seconds. “Are we going to be defeated here?”

  Tactical shook her head. “No. You would never let that happen.” She leaned toward him. “People are going to die and families are going to be unhappy. No way around that. Nothing can make up for it, but a victory will help. The OrCons have no idea what is coming at them. This is too reckless for them to even conceive happening. This will be a win. The only two variables are how big a win and at what cost.”

  Hawkins nodded. He thought through the available plans just discussed on the flag bridge. “I like the last plan best. We hit Rurik and run before the enemy ships going toward the Metal Moon can return and draw us into a fight. We will have to let that enemy fleet get further away so we can maximize our time for destroying the base at Rurik and still have a several hour lead on them as we race for home. You need to take a look at that. We will have to position Flicker somewhere along the flight path to warn us when the enemy ships are heading back to Rurik.” He paused and then said, “If one of the six ships in our cruiser force can keep sensors on the first enemy group, we will look at engaging that fifty-ship fleet on the way home while running ahead of the second group returning from the Metal Moon.”

  Tactical smiled at him. “That’s the Raferty Hawkins I know and love.” She stood up. “I’m off to ops. I’ll get Al Bond in on this, and we’ll crunch the timeline and get back to you with a new one based on letting the second Rurik group get closer to the Metal Moon before we attack.” She exited via Rafe’s hatch.

  Chapter 20

  Tactical briefed the battle staff in the flag conference room on the new plan. “Travel time for warships at top speed between Rurik and the Metal Moon is six hours. The Orion homeworld of Silovik is twelve hours beyond the Metal Moon. The length of the Metal Moon fight will be Captain Wilson’s decision. Regardless of how long they fight at the Metal Moon, they will depart long before the Rurik force can get to them at the Moon. They will depart in the direction of Silovik. When Silovik hears of the Metal Moon attack, they will sortie forces from there just to ensure there is a blocking force between Silovik and the attackers. The Rurik force responding to the Moon attack will have to continue their pursuit even after the attack ends in an attempt to trap our destroyers between them and the Silovik blocking unit. No matter what the enemy commanders think our raiders will actually do, they have to give the homeworld the best defense possible.

  “The original plan was to let the enemy sortie from Rurik for the Metal Moon and get four hours and forty-five minutes away before we emerge at the mine web. Once we move through the web and on toward Rurik, we would be in missile range thirty minutes after we surface at the mine web. We would start throwing at the little moon first as we close on Rurik. Thirty minutes later we will be in the spaceport. That old timeline gave us three hours and fifteen minutes over the target before the departing OrCon ships could turn around and get back into missile range to shoot at us.

  “Under the new timeline, we want to have a time cushion between us and the returning Orion warships in case we get an opportunity to engage the first fleet on our return to Empire space. If we do get the opportunity to engage that first group now out searching for our destroyers, we want to ensure the second fleet doesn’t drive up our ass as we fight the first fleet.”

  She looked around at her audience and went on. “The new change is we will let the Rurik force get further than four hours and forty-five minutes away from Rurik. We will let them get six hours away before we come out of subspace at the mine web. Giving them thirty minutes to get underway, we will emerge at the mine web, six and a half hours after the attack begins at the Metal Moon. That means the departing OrCon Rurik force will be arriving at the Moon just as they get the call to return. Hopefully, there will be some confusion as they judge the situation at the Moon, and this will add a few minutes to their decision process. We will not take anything for granted and will stick to hard times in our timeline.

  “The disadvantage to this new timeline is they can pick up whatever ships are still operational at the Metal Moon and return. Even if they send some ships in pursuit of our raiders, it is possible they will come back with more ships than they departed with. Also, we have to assume we will not destroy all the sensors on Rurik, so that base will track us for two hours upon our departure and be able to vector the returning ships to pursue us. If we don’t destroy all the enemy warships at Rurik, it is reasonable to assume those ships will follow us and provide constant position reports. With the Rurik force behind us and the fifty ships already out there in a possible position to cut us off, it is imperative we establish a large time cushion between us and our pursuers. If not, we may be forced to fight at a disadvantage if we take on the first fleet and then have to engage the second group as they appear.” She paused and looked at the entire staff. “If we can get a shot at the fifty ships already out searching for our destroyers, we will take it. Be prepared for fleet action in open space. Questions?”

  There were none. The staff began to work out the details for the new plan.

  Chapter 21

  Tactical and Captain Alistair Bond submitted the new plan for co
mmand review. Admiral Levant and Hawkins agreed it was good to go. The new timeline for the plan was transmitted to all ships and back to Wanderlust and Zelenka.

  One part of the plan was not sent out in the general communiqué. In a separate message sent by Tactical, Flicker was ordered to the three-hour halfway point between Rurik and the Metal Moon to await the Orion ships as they moved from Rurik to the Metal Moon fight. The spy ship would send two messages. One message would be sent when the Rurik force passed the spy ship on their way to the Metal Moon. The message would go to Captain Wilson’s force in real time as the Typhoon group would be in subspace. That message would be repeated to the Typhoon group as they emerged at the mine obstacle so Typhoon would know the remaining ships at the base had actually responded to the Metal Moon attack. The second message would be sent when that same OrCon force passed by on its return trip to rescue their Rurik base. The message would alert the Typhoon group that the enemy ships were only three hours away from Rurik and closing.

  The main force led by Typhoon continued to close on Rurik.

  ~ ~ ~

  The destroyer force had been in subspace for six hours and began to emerge twenty hours from the Metal Moon. They would go subspace again at twelve hours away so they had eight hours in normal space. The emerging formations were ragged and spread out. Fortunately, there was nothing but empty space in the immediate area. Wilson quickly tightened up his flotilla and posted single ships out as pickets. Four pickets now covered the twenty-two ships in formation. The extended sensor range of the pickets showed just three individual ships well beyond sensor range of the main body. The six ships returning to home space had pulled the fifty OrCon ships away from the destroyer force. The raiders were safe for the immediate future. The pickets moved to thirty minutes out from the formation and the destroyer force continued to close on the Metal Moon.

  Blondie was on the bridge of Jib as all ships emerged from subspace. She had Jib tight on the starboard side of Wilson’s Topsail. She scanned the bridge. The bridge crew were going about their jobs slowly. Blondie frowned. The six-hour subspace trip was just a precursor to the long one coming very soon. The crew would need to time adjust after surfacing from a twenty-four hour submersion. Unfortunately, that time would not be available. There was nothing to be done except to make sure the battle crew got several hours of rack time and then was brought on duty an hour before surfacing at the Metal Moon. Blondie thought that would help combat the subspace effects.

  She reviewed the computer program for the upcoming subspace segment for the fifth time. She saw no problems in the flight profile. If every ship did what the plan called for, two groups would be emerging at a 120-degree offset. This would minimize the possibility of collisions in subspace and would allow weapons coverage over the entire Metal Moon. The pirates would take position above the floating dock facility which hovered just over the north pole of the Moon. The Royal Navy ships would come out of subspace abeam the Moon and quickly close in to get among the ships docked on the Moon. With the attackers using the floating docks and the Moon itself for cover, it would be tough for the OrCons to engage them with defensive fires and not hit their own friendly assets. At least, that was the idea. Blondie hoped it was the right one.

  Just as she completed her review, a message came in from Jack Wilson. The message was the adjustment to the plan. Blondie quickly read through it. There was nothing there that impacted their Moon mission, but she assumed Wilson and O’Hare would take a great interest in the possibility of a fleet action while the destroyers were running for home. Assuming the enemy chased the two light cruisers and the four destroyers, the Typhoon force would be closer to the expected position of that enemy unit than Wilson’s destroyers would be. In fact, the enemy force chasing the cruisers would be in a position to block the Typhoon force at the border. Blondie couldn’t imagine Wilson or O’Hare passing up a fight so she would not be surprised to see Wilson alter course to close with the Typhoon unit as soon as possible after the Moon attack and their feint toward the Orion homeworld.

  Seven hours later, the formation received a transmission from a pirate spy at the Metal Moon. There were sixty-seven warships and military auxiliary ships plus fifty-three merchant ships in port. There were no changes from previous reports. The mission was a go. One hour later, the destroyers formed into their subspace formations, changed course to get separation from each other, and submerged.

  ~ ~ ~

  At Wanderlust, Admiral Barrett reviewed his own defensive plans for his base. Everything was coming together nicely. Nobody knew the locations of the two OrCon raiding task forces that had been harassing Wanderlust, but they were not in the immediate area so Barrett knew he still had time to fine-tune his strategy. It was possible the OrCon spy ship had kept the two OrCon raiders appraised of the situation at Wanderlust, but the Royal Navy warships departing had done so in small groups, and the incoming freighters had arrived with as much engine noise as possible so it would make the anchorage seem to have more warships than were actually present. The five new warships fresh from sea trials were in position within the spaceport, and Barrett expected to get some of the six warships sent back by Wilson.

  The three warships in the repair docks were almost ready. There was still plenty of work to be done on them, but the important work on engines, weapon systems, and targeting sensors was complete. The ships could fight so were ready to do their part in the defense of Wanderlust. Soon Barrett would transfer his flag to the battlecruiser in the repair docks. His Sirocco had not been part of the Excandor fight as she was allowed to stay at Wanderlust as a courtesy to Barrett since she was his flagship. Now, with the shortage of ships, Sirocco was in the force attacking Rurik. Barrett wished he was aboard her but glad she was contributing to this vital battle.

  The five pirate freighters were in low orbit above the surface base. The five new warships would be put in front of the missile boats to cover them during the Orion attack. A total of eighteen slingshot systems had been sent to Wanderlust and these had been set up on the surface below the pirate freighters. Once the freighters fired on the enemy, they would attract much raider attention in return. The Slingshot systems, loaded with interceptors, would provide some defense for the ships. The freighters could not defend themselves as all their salvos would be offensive missiles.

  Admiral Barrett now read the new plan sent from Typhoon. He considered the possible space battle against the fifty ships already out of Rurik. This fight would be along the border and, if the timeline held, three days or so after the Rurik attack. It would take that long for the opposing maneuvering forces to meet. If the expected attack on Wanderlust occurred early in the campaign and a victory achieved, it might mean Barrett would be free to depart Wanderlust with his makeshift force and seek the enemy out in space and assist his comrades. That would mean leaving Wanderlust with minimal defenses, but there was an opportunity here for a great victory, so the risk might be worth it. The key would be decimating the attacking raiders first so there would be no immediate threat to Wanderlust in that aftermath of that battle. Barrett reviewed his defensive plan again.

  ~ ~ ~

  Admiral Wu and the Queen sat in the Queen’s office and discussed the new wrinkle in the operation. Since the Queen’s recall of Hawkins to command Royal Navy ships, Prime Minister Strickland and Defense Minister Cunningham had maintained as little contact with the Queen as they could get away with. The reasons were clear. They didn’t approve of the strategy or the man in charge but could do little about it so they were quite willing to let the episode play out without their participation—at least until Hawkins failed, and then they would be leaders of the “I told you so” crowd. Alexis could live with it. She wasn’t all that wild about seeing either of those two men so didn’t miss them at all. However, Admiral Wu sensed that Hawkins’ move would pay dividends for his navy and the war effort so quickly took up common cause with the Queen, and they met often to discuss the latest war developments and Hawkins’ current situa
tion. Wu favored the new plan of the fleet action because hitting the Metal Moon commence center, the Rurik naval base, and then destroying a number of enemy combatants in open space would be quite a trifecta and cause a large tremor to go through the Orion Confederation. They would be defeated in three separate arenas and would have to reevaluate their war strategy, distribution of resources, and adjust any timetables for future actions. The OrCon military leaders would have to do all this with civilians braying in their ears about the casualties at the Metal Moon. Three victories so close together would lift Zelenkan morale and, perhaps, turn the tide of the war. The Queen went along with that line of reasoning while hoping it wasn’t just wishful thinking.

  ~ ~ ~

  Admiral of the Third Rank Cadman Pervak read the report from Prizrak, the spy ship keeping tabs on Wanderlust. Many Royal Navy and merchant ships were recorded departing the base over a period of six days in groups of varying size. Some ships came in during the same time period but the number of vessels in port had decreased significantly. The departures ended six days ago. Wanderlust was as empty as it was likely to get. Pervak pursed his lips in thought as he stared at the report. His orders did leave open the possibility of hitting Wanderlust if the opportunity arose, but he was concerned about this being an opportunity that only existed in his desire to attack the base. He had a significant force at his command. There was his raiding force of ten ships spearheaded by the Congress class battlecruiser Bundestag. He could also take command of the other raiding force of nine ships under the battlecruiser Diet as that force was commanded by a senior captain with orders to support Pervak in every way possible. Pervak’s ships were three days from Wanderlust while the Diet force was two days. He considered all possibilities and came to the conclusion there was no harm in rendezvousing with the Diet raiders and closing on Wanderlust just to gauge the situation. He ordered a message sent to Prizrak informing her of the upcoming maneuver and instructing her to be vigilant. The spy ship was probably in subspace now, but the message would be resent every hour until an acknowledgment was received. Admiral Pervak leaned back in his chair. If an opportunity presented itself at Wanderlust, he would seize it with both hands.