Smoke on the Wind

by Sean Benjamin

  O’Hare saw Topsail move out and then return to her position against the Moon. She knew what Wilson was doing and was glad he had evidently decided to continue dealing out damage. She was all for that. It was rare to catch an enemy this unprepared. The allies pressed their advantage now. The majority of the defenses were neutralized. There was incoming fire from the planet’s floaters but those missiles were easily tracked and could be dealt with. All attacking ships started to work over the enemy ships that had only their engines disabled. Now raider munitions slammed against their hulls.

  “Royal Navy, we pull out in three minutes,” announced Wilson. “Push out your mines as we depart.” With the additional three minutes, Wilson was extending the attack a total of seven minutes beyond the time limits in the original plan. The mines would be the last action against the OrCons here.

  “We have overwatch,” O’Hare responded to ensure they knew she would carry out her part of the plan. From their position, the pirates would cover the withdrawal of the Zekes from the Moon.

  “Roger that,” Wilson answered. He switched topics. “Lateen, abandon ship.” The mortally wounded destroyer was well along the departure route. Now that ship slowed as a dozen escape pods quickly came off the hull. Single pods came off after that as the few crewmembers still onboard the ship finished up their final tasks and then evacuated.

  Three minutes later, the Royal Navy ships began dropping mines as they made to egress. The mines flowed out of the hangar bays as ships turned and sped from the Moon. The small explosives drifted as they waited for activation.

  The majority of Zeke destroyers suffered damage of varying degrees, but Wilson noted Foreroyal was lagging and wallowing in her maneuvers. He acted immediately. “Captain Mannock, casualty report, please.” Wilson stressed the word “please” to let everyone on the command net know he was not happy with the lack of a timely report that he was sure would contain unwelcomed news. Any surprise when withdrawing from an engagement was always a bad one. It was clear Foreroyal was hurt more than her captain let on. And now that might endanger other ships as they covered for her.

  Captain Victoria Mannock maintained her composure while on screen, but the narrowing eyes and tight features showed she had not missed the slight insult. Wilson didn’t much give a damn. Both Foreroyal and Lateen had been members of the private squadron Death Dealers, and Wilson considered them to be prima donnas without the combat record to back it up.

  “We are damaged but will perform repairs on the run,” Tennant replied in a clipped tone.

  Wilson had been scanning the destroyer and saw the number two engine was running hot and she had holes throughout her hull. The environment systems had to be working hard to keep up with the venting atmosphere. Viable repairs would require work outside the ship and that simply wasn’t possible under the current circumstances. It was debatable she could go subspace and, even if she could, the damaged hull with its venting atmosphere would create much noise and endanger every flotilla ship. If they were close to home, she would limp to safety. They were not close to home.

  Wilson reacted quickly. “Prepare to abandon ship. You will do so in the vicinity of Lateen. Set ship destruction for command detonation.”

  Wilson watched as Captain Mannock opened her mouth to argue the point, but he beat her to it. “Captain, this isn’t a debate. I am ordering you to abandon ship. I will not let you endanger this formation. Carry out your orders. Now!”

  He stared at Mannock, and she stared back for a moment. She was clearly calculating the various results of refusing the order. Losing your ship was bad, but having Jack Wilson and Raferty Hawkins headhunting you was worse. Finally, she nodded and began to issue orders to her crew. Wilson moved on to Strake. She was damaged but serviceable. The Zekes had damage to all their ships but would lose only two. Wilson knew they were damn lucky. Part of that luck was due to a good plan that was well executed. Part of it was also due to an enemy who was lax and comfortable far behind the front lines. Wilson had to admit part of the success was also due to the pirate contingent. They were veterans at this and it showed. They had covered his Royal Navy ships with well-timed and well-aimed ordnance and had protected themselves so they would not require rescuing.

  The Royal Navy ships moved out of the immediate area of the Metal Moon so the pirates abandoned their overwatch position above the floating docks and began to follow. Wilson glanced at the pirate formation as they closed on his position. Stationary, powerless warships made easy targets, and the pirates continued to pound the enemy as they departed. O’Hare was taking them on a leisurely trip around the Metal Moon as the pirates continued offensive fires with missiles but were using guns and lasers for defensive support against the few Moon defensive positions still operational. They maintained a tight formation but constantly changed positions within the formation to ensure no ship or any particular shield section was exposed to enemy fire for too long a time. Wilson shook his head. The pirates knew how to fight a space battle. He suspected if he had come in here with just Royal Navy ships, the results would have been far different. His navy still had a lot to learn.

  The Royal Navy warships continued to send out ordnance as the pirate ships closed in on them in a running rendezvous. The combined force cleared the harbor and moved along the escape route toward the enemy home planet of Silovik. As the force closed on the stationary, abandoned Lateen, Wilson ordered Foreroyal to abandon ship. The destroyer slowed as engines were shut down and pods began to come off the ship. The Royal Navy ships slowed to pick up pods from Lateen and Foreroyal, and O’Hare had her force position itself between the pods and the enemy. They maintained fire on the Moon and other targets.

  Wilson would use the mines as a diversion as his force stopped to conduct their pick up. He said over the command net, “Activating mines in fifteen seconds.” He counted it down and his OpsO activated the mines. Immediately hundreds of mines drifting around the spaceport became magnetized and began to move toward the nearest piece of metal. Everyone with a view watched in fascination as mines sped quickly to a variety of targets. Eight drifting ships attracted a half dozen mines each. The mines moved to them and detonated against the hulls. Most of these ships were already badly damaged, and the mines ensured repair work would never be an option. Some mines were attracted to crippled floating batteries and exploded against missile launchers and gun turrets. The majority of the mines moved on the Metal Moon and its ships. The battleship and two strike carriers took further hits as mines slammed into them and detonated. They would be complete losses. Other ships and the Moon itself endured mine explosions.

  As the destroyers began their pod recovery, Wilson’s operations people totaled up their accomplishments. One battleship, two strike carriers, four battlecruisers, six heavy cruisers, eight light cruisers, sixteen destroyers, and thirty military support ships were heavily damaged or destroyed. The tally for commercial vessels was still being compiled, but it would be many dozens. With the exception of the carriers, the other warships were not of the most recent classes of ships launched by the OrCon navy, but that did not detract from the achievement. Under any accounting method, this was a big victory. The tally was not only in the destruction to ships and the Metal Moon but also the damage to the psyche of the Orion Confederation. The repercussions of this action would be felt throughout their domain. The pod pickup was completed and the formation moved out at flank speed. Once well clear, the two crippled Royal Navy destroyers were blown up by command detonation.

  ~ ~ ~

  The minutes passed quickly as the raiding destroyers ran toward Silovik. Captain Wilson checked his location and the time. After two hours, his force had moved beyond sensor range from Zavodila. Of course, a ship could have followed them from there or a stray ship that happened to be in the vicinity could have them on sensors. Their own sensor detection devices reported they were clear, but that was never a certainty. They were three hours away from Zavodila when Flicker’s report came in that the Rurik relief force was
halfway between Rurik and the Metal Moon. Flicker reported them in a widely dispersed formation. The enemy commander would know the Royal Navy attackers would be gone from Zavodila long before the rescue force would arrive there so had spread out his or her ships in a wide formation in hopes of detecting the intruders as they passed by them while running for the Aurora Empire and home. The OrCons would know that the raiders had departed toward the home planet but would not really believe that was the new target. No, the OrCons would sweep toward Zavodila while thinking the raiders would be trying to pass them as they returned to the border.

  Since the OrCons would find nothing in their sweep, they would get all the way to Zavodila. That would be at the same time the Zeke attack at Rurik would commence, roughly three hours from now. Wilson knew the Rurik ships would arrive at the Metal Moon and, while inspecting it, they would receive the message from Rurik about the imminent attack there. Wilson was sure the Rurik force would return to their home base. They might leave a token force to sweep toward the home planet in search of his destroyers, but the Rurik commander really didn’t have a choice but to return to home base. It occurred to Wilson that he was turning to the border now in a wide arc to stay out of Zavodila sensor range and this would mean his force would be passing Zavodila at about the same time the OrCon force would be arriving there. Of course, he would be far away from the planet but, depending on when the OrCons receive word about the attack on their Rurik base, it was possible his destroyers and the OrCon force would be on parallel courses headed back toward Rurik. There would be at least four hours of high-speed flying time between the two forces but they would be going in the same direction. Wilson was aware he needed to stay at least even with them to ensure they could not turn in his direction and cut off his path home. He couldn’t use his comm due to the need to maintain security, but he would hear Flicker’s report when the OrCons passed her at the halfway point on the way back to their Rurik base. With his fast ships, it was possible he could join the Typhoon task force in time for a fight with the first OrCon group. One could only hope. He turned his force in a wide arc toward home space and moved at max speed.

  Chapter 24

  Typhoon rose from subspace exactly on time. Her fleet of sixty-four warships followed her into normal space, spread out in a long, narrow group several hundred kilometers long. The ships closed on the mine web in front of them and began firing. Mines detonated or simply dissolved under the gunfire and laser hits. The Zeke fleet would withdraw the same way they went in so needed to destroy as many mines as possible so the surviving mines could not be moved around to fill in gaps and pose a threat on the way out. Once through the web, the fleet accelerated toward Rurik. Time was limited. The enemy would be alerted and preparing to meet the coming assault.

  One patrol craft was behind the minefield and had immediately begun running for her Rurik base. Typhoon and two heavy cruisers took the small ship under fire and she didn’t get far. These local patrol ships were lightly armed and short range. They would be no threat to the attackers.

  Tactical announced from the flag bridge ops position, “Message coming in from Juliet Seven Romeo.” Most of the bridge watch had no idea who that was, but the people in command knew. Flicker was updating the combat situation for them. She paused as she read and then continued, “An estimated forty-four ships passed us three hours and fifteen minutes ago. Formation was spread out over several hundred klicks. Direction of flight was toward Zavodila and the Metal Moon.” The bridge watch smiled at each other. The remaining ships in Rurik had departed hours prior for the Metal Moon. Tactical paused again as she worked at her screen. She then announced, “Worst case scenario is eight warships left at Rurik.”

  Nobody acknowledged the information. The plan was going as briefed. Hopefully, that trend would continue. Flicker would have picked up the OrCons on sensors one hour after they departed Rurik headed for Zavodila, and they did a quick count before shutting down sensors for fear of being discovered and located. After the enemy had passed, Flicker would have surfaced and was now waiting for the OrCons to return home in response to the attack there. Flicker had sent her report based on the time the Typhoon fleet was expected to surface at the mines. The spy crew had been sending the message every ten minutes and would continue to do so until receiving an acknowledgement. Tactical would send the correct coded response.

  Chapter 25

  Admiral of the Second Rank Efim Dudnik sat in his command chair on the battleship Bastion as his squadron entered the Zavodila spaceport or, rather, what was left of it. He already knew the enemy’s methods, order of battle, and the results without using his imagination or evaluating the damage before him. The battle had been captured on many of the port’s sensors and cameras. The Zavodila defenders had sent the images to Dudnik’s ship as soon as he announced to Zavodila he was responding to their call for assistance. The imagery was not in real time but had only a nineteen-minute transmitting lag time so the would-be rescuers watched the entire battle as they sped toward Zavodila. Dudnik knew the enemy would be gone hours before his ships would arrive. He also knew this was not about the Metal Moon fight anymore, at least as far as he was concerned. That event was already in the past even as he watched it rage. Rescue was not an option, but retaliation was still viable—at least he hoped so.

  As his ships slowly entered the spaceport, Dudnik scanned the area and had to admit the raiders had done a good job. Everywhere he looked he saw destruction. Nine commercial ships drifted about the open areas in varying conditions of damage. Dudnik knew they had been floating free in the harbor when the raiders appeared. They had been hit early as the enemy didn’t want any ships to escape and then shadow the raiders on sensors as they made their own escape. It was a smart move as some Zeke commanders would have left the civilian vessels alone and then regretted it later when one of the ships began to follow them. Dudnik allowed himself a small smile. The Zekes are finally figuring out they are in a war. It took them long enough.

  He looked at the Metal Moon docking facilities. Dozens of ships were still moored to the huge globe. They never had a chance. Again, Dudnik had to give credit where credit was due. The attackers hit ship engines first and moved on to other targets after the engines were knocked out. This allowed many ships to be taken out quickly and there would still be time to go back to complete the job once the entire fleet had been disabled. The raiders had done exactly that. One Paladin class battleship and two Sokol class strike carriers had been hit hard and were clearly done as fighting vessels. A multitude of other warships and support ships were also heavily damaged. Dozens of commercial ships of all types were tied to the Moon or the floating docks above that structure, and they were all wrecks. These merchant vessels couldn’t absorb a great amount of punishment, but they sure had received a great share of it. The ships would have been manned by civilian crews so the Admiral knew there would be fallout within the Confederacy from this first episode of massive civilian casualties in the war.

  Six warships drifted near the Moon. The chain of events was easy to discern. The ships had gotten engines online but had attracted immediate attention as soon as they had pushed away from their berths. The attackers would never let any ship get underway, so missiles had flown at these six targets from all directions and quickly disabled them. Then the six ships were worked over with guns from bow to stern.

  Debris floated throughout the harbor. Pieces of ships, harbor facilities, the Metal Moon, and defensive fortifications were intermingled with escape pods bearing the names of dozens of ships. There would be no business-as-usual here for a long time. Repair time would not be in days or weeks but in months, not to mention the additional defenses that would be demanded by the civilians and then built.

  Dudnik even admired the dropping of magnetic mines as the destroyers departed. Once activated, the majority of them moved to the nearest hunk of metal, stuck to it, and then exploded. The damage was equally distributed between ships and the Metal Moon. None of the targets could aff
ord any more damage, but they received some just the same. There were a few mines that either malfunctioned or were too far away from a target to sense it and move to it. These mines floated in the open areas around the harbor, and his ships were now lasing them whenever they were detected.

  Dudnik finally got around to scanning the Metal Moon itself. He didn’t much care about it as he was focused on the ships in the space harbor, but the Moon had taken a beating. He could see holes throughout the globe and could imagine the compartments opened to space had been sealed off to protect the atmospheric integrity of the large structure. Any people in those spaces would be sacrificed for the common good. He suspected there was much more damage within the sphere than could be assessed from an outside scan. He knew there were large supply storage areas which meant much ordnance and flammable items. If any of that had detonated, the results would not be pretty. Dudnik gave the Moon a sympathetic nod and returned to his present challenge.