Smoke on the Wind

by Sean Benjamin

  Despite the fact the attacking force consisted of only destroyers, Dudnik had to admit that, all in all, the Zekes had done a fantastic job. He reflected on that and realized he wasn’t being wholly accurate. The Zekes and the pirates had done a fantastic job. He suspected the plan was the brainchild of Raferty Hawkins, the Goddamn Duke of Goddamn Black Hallow. Dudnik, like all the military and civilian leaders in the Confederation, had read many stories of the pirate actions in previous battles so thoughtfully provided by the Aurora Empire media. This information had been augmented with data from Orion and Goldenes Tor intel reports. The Orion leaders knew all about Hawkins and his merry band of overachievers. There was the attack on the secret base with the fanciful pirate codename of Murmansk, and then there was their key role in the Electra System where that Orion raid-in-force had gone to hell in a fast ship. The Zeke news reports had told of the pirate need for revenge after the ill-advised excursion by an Orion squadron into their Badlands territory at the beginning of the war. That wasted Orion effort seems to continually draw Hawkins back here for battle. The Orion military establishment had been ignoring him as there were always bigger concerns, but Dudnik knew this man had to be dealt with and the sooner the better.

  Dudnik continued to rotate cameras around as he assessed the results and formulated a plan for his ships. He was looking for any ships capable of joining his force and contributing to the revenge he wanted to visit on the attacking destroyers. This Metal Moon fight was over before he had even heard about it, and his focus was always on where the raiders would go next and how to counter that. Dudnik thought they would take their victory and run for home. However, there was the potential for more mischief on their part, and he had to consider that. They could even threaten the home planet of Silovik. Dudnik doubted that even though the attackers had departed in that direction. The home planet was well protected by static defenses and squadrons of ships. Also, the added distance from there back to the border would allow Orion ships to cut off most the routes home and trap the destroyer force in Orion space. Such an attack wasn’t really plausible, but the civilians in the government on Silovik would not be thinking about the long odds of such probabilities. This Moon attack showed the government that civilians and commercial targets were no longer off-limits. That new realization would make the members of the government feel very venerable. They would be worried about covering their asses with as much military protection as possible with little attention given to the possibilities of such an attack happening.

  The orders came from the home defense ministry just prior to his arrival at the Metal Moon. He was to pursue the raiders as they were now threatening Silovik. Dudnik was prepared to do that and had only stopped at Zavodila because he was looking for reinforcements from the Metal Moon survivors. The raiders had done their work well and there would be no help for Dudnik here at Zavodila. Most of the warships were either beyond repair or in need of major work. Not one ship could get underway.

  As Dudnik prepared to issue orders to spread out his ships and move toward the home planet, the comm officer talked loudly from his station. “Message from Rurik, Admiral. An enemy fleet has just appeared at the mine web. Roughly sixty ships. They have blasted through and are closing on the base at flank speed.”

  Every face on the flag bridge turned to Dudnik. He spoke quickly over his command net. “All ships, we will return to Rurik. Max speed. Let’s move.” Dudnik knew that the six-hour return flight would mean the attack there would be long over before he could render any aid but what else could he do. Besides, he was sure the raiding destroyers would be heading for the border and home and moving back to Rurik would be moving in the right direction.

  The flagship pivoted and accelerated to maximum speed. Every other ship followed. Dudnik spoke to his comm officer. “Tell all stations we are returning to Rurik.” He stared at the man. “Then do not acknowledge any calls from Silovik or Zavodila. They will want a security blanket to wrap around themselves so will want some of our ships, and we have none to spare. They are in no real danger. The Metal Moon raiders will run for home regardless of their departure direction from Zavodila.” The comm officer nodded.

  As the OrCon flotilla departed back to their home base, many rescue and damage control battles were being waged within the Metal Moon. The attack had been ruinous and the resulting fires and sympathetic explosions had contributed to large swaths of the interior of the Moon being demolished. Leading one of the fire-fighting brigades was Jordan the Spy. He had emerged from deep within the Moon and immediately swung into action by directing efforts to help others or assist in damage control. Dazed civilians were more than happy to let someone else be in charge, and they followed his orders willingly. Jordan would be cited as one of the heroes in the aftermath of the battle for his personal bravery and take-charge efforts in the face of the destruction and confusion. He took pride in that recognition. Almost as much pride as he took in his contribution to the devastating attack itself.

  Chapter 26

  “Contact!”

  Appaloosa’s sensor operator was a little loud and excited but Captain Farrango excused the kid. Hell, they were all kids, but he liked his crew. What they lacked in experience, they attempted to make up in enthusiasm and dedication. Farrango would take experience every time, but you get what you get. He shuffled through screens until getting the correct tac screen up and looked at the sensor return. Far off his formation’s starboard quarter several blips were closing on his group. Farrango would let them get a little closer and then turn to port to put the pursuers dead astern. He would wait until they were ninety minutes away before doing it. He wanted them well within sensor range so they couldn’t slip away. He had already decided if they turned to another heading as a prelude to departing, his would be the lone ship to follow them to maintain contact and make position reports.

  He turned to the comm station. “Report our location and their location to all participants.”

  The comm officer nodded and began to work with the navigator to get an accurate report out. Three minutes later, a position report went out to Wilson, Levant, and Barrett.

  ~ ~ ~

  Admiral Dabria Kasyanov looked at the sensor return. They had finally found the fleeing raiders. There were several enemy ships out there, but it was impossible to tell how many as she was sure they were employing noisemakers within their tight formation. It didn’t matter as she knew she had them outnumbered and thought they would not give battle anyway. The Zeke ships were maintaining course and speed but could easily turn away from her and kept ahead of her pursuit for a long time. There were no other friendly forces in the area to cut off the enemy. Kasyanov would continue to close the gap and see how the enemy reacted. She spread out her ships and put picket ships on both flanks and one trailing astern. She didn’t think these enemy ships were leading her into a trap, but naval history was filled with examples of commanders who thought that and continued to think that right up to when the trap was sprung. She was determined not to be one of them.

  ~ ~ ~

  Admiral Cadman Pervak moved his raider flotilla toward Wanderlust at a steady pace. He knew he had some time so was in no hurry and, besides, he didn’t want to arouse anyone’s curiosity by being caught on sensors traveling at a high rate of speed. He had pickets out front and on each flank to ensure there would be an early warning if any ships happened to pass by. A commercial vessel getting a contact on one lone ship traveling at an easy pace would not think much about it and would not send a sighting message. However, getting a contact on several ships in formation was always an invitation to send messages over all the general frequencies.

  Pervak figured the Zeke ships that departed Wanderlust days prior were raiding deep in Orion territory or getting ready to hit a particular target. Now he waited for confirmation that the ships were truly out of the area. Once he had such a message, he would move against the base. Pervak would rendezvous with the other raiding task force in sixteen hours, and they would move toward
Wanderlust together. There should be a report from the spy ship Prizrak within three hours. Pervak was hoping it would be good news about an empty port at Wanderlust just begging to be hit.

  Chapter 27

  The Typhoon task force pushed on toward Rurik. Sensors showed several OrCon ships departing the spaceport in the opposite direction. These were most likely support ships or commercial ships running from the fight. There were also five ships moving to cover. From their sensor returns, these were destroyers or light cruisers. Two went behind the little moon, and the other three went over the planet. They were getting out of the target area but would clearly reappear at some time during the battle.

  Forty minutes from the harbor, the little moon came into range and the attacking force took it under fire. Missiles flew and the defenses answered with interceptors. The fight was on. The Zekes targeted the defenses protecting the little moon first. They were not in range of the spaceport yet. However, the spaceport defenses had thirteen floaters close enough to the moon to provide defensive fires to protect the moon. As the Zeke missiles came in range, the moon’s defenses and floater support took out the majority of the missile attack, but the large size of the barrage meant some missiles did get through. These Zeke missiles were armed with Hydra warheads. Just prior to hitting the target, the warhead split into three explosive projectiles. These smaller warheads would spread out in the last moments before impact to create three separate hits and explosions. The explosive force was smaller than one large explosion from a single warhead, but against soft targets such as base facilities or floating docks, these small warheads did widespread damage in a hurry. The Zekes had targeted the moon’s defenses so the impacts were on the moon’s gun and missile emplacements as well as sensor towers. The command post also came under fire.

  The fleet continued to close on target so had only minutes to deal with the little moon before they would switch to targets in the spaceport. Missiles flowed in a steady stream at the moon. Most were taken out by the defenders, but as the moon’s defenses were reduced, more Zeke missiles impacted their targets. Half of the gun and missile positions on the moon were knocked out of action as the last Zeke salvos came in.

  Hawkins stood behind the command chair while having Levant sit in it. He didn’t want to disrupt the chain of command as Levant would be in charge when Hawkins was on the surface with the Royal Marines, so the pirate stayed out of the way now. Hawkins knew Levant didn’t need any help from him in running this attack. Levant turned to his OpsO. “Let’s send Murray and two light cruisers after the two moon ships. We can’t do anything about the three ships on the other side of the planet. We will use defensive fires against them when they appear.”

  “Aye, Admiral,” Captain Bond replied as he executed the orders.

  Hawkins nodded slightly. It was the best answer to the situation. The two moon ships had to be dealt with as they could pop out, fire missiles, and duck back behind the moon before taking any shots in return. They had to be flushed out and destroyed or driven off. The three ships on the back side of the planet had the big moon and its defenses for support, so any force sent after them would have to be large enough to deal with those enemy defenses. Also, the three ships hiding there could just depart into open space at the first sign of a threat and the big moon defenses would get free shots with no risk to the three ships at all. Thus, aggressive dealing with those three ships was not in the plan. The attackers would just have to deal with the possibility of the three ships reappearing at a very inconvenient time.

  The attacking warships were bunched together for protection and to create a large sensor return. This allowed ships in the formation to go subspace without being obvious on enemy sensors. The River class heavy cruiser Murray and the light cruisers Fremont and Livingston slid under other ships, went subspace, and dropped down and out of the formation. Once clear they turned toward the little moon. It would take them thirty minutes to proceed to a location just below the little moon and then emerge. The enemy defenses on the little moon and Rurik would be updating the two OrCon ships hiding behind the moon about Zeke maneuvering, but the three subspace ships should be a surprise to them when they emerged and moved against the two enemy ships behind the moon.

  The Zeke formation took the nearest port defenses under fire now as they zeroed in on floaters on the outer reaches of the space harbor. These floaters had been supporting the little moon and were now in range for Zeke retaliation. The two sides exchanged missile volleys, but the attackers had the defenders greatly outnumbered and the missile attacks immediately began to take a toll. Active floaters were gradually eliminated as the attackers closed on target. The attack plan called for overwhelming each defensive position before moving on to the next target. This took time, but it was effective. There could not be random positions left active who could raise hell with the shuttles taking the Royal Marines to the surface.

  The bombardment started on the east side of the space harbor and move methodically through the huge anchorage. Only defensive weapon positions were hit. Docks, storage tanks, comm structures, and other such facilities were ignored for now. Securing the pathway for getting the assault force to the surface was the most important task at the moment, and the ships engaged all targets that could threaten that landing.

  As the ships continued to approach the base, they took a heading to the eastern boundary of the surface base. The ground assault would land there and sweep through the base east to west with a walking bombardment hitting the surface ahead of the Royal Marines. Ten armed pirate shuttles would remain close at hand on the surface to provide fire support for the advancing ground troops. The weak point in the plan was lack of intel on the underground portion of the base. The attack on that segment of the facility was based on a generic layout with no particulars. Hawkins and his planners were uncomfortable with that, but there was nothing to be done except to not go underground at all and Hawkins had no intention of passing up the opportunity. Brigadier Dunwater was putting a slight majority of his forces in the underground attack with his best small unit leaders in command. Once underground, there would be extensive limitations on communications and on “big picture” situational awareness so there was a need for aggressive leaders who could operate independently without direction from the chain of command. Fortunately, the marines had plenty of those leaders.

  Hawkins wasn’t concerned about the Royal Marines’ ability. They hadn’t earned their two centuries of a tough reputation by being shy in battle. He had no doubt they would win. He was concerned his lack of information would get many of them killed along the way. He knew Dunwater was going underground while letting his deputy commander fight the surface battle, and Raferty had already decided he would go with him. He would leave that battle early to get back to Typhoon if necessary, but he wanted to be at that particular battle site. Hawkins departed the flag bridge for the shuttle bay and joined Brigadier Dunwater in the lone shuttle departing from Typhoon. Their shuttle would be the second one to touch down on the eastern edge of the base.

  The attacking ships took up two lines of defense and remained in place as shuttles were launched from two dozen ships. The shuttles formed on the run as they quickly passed down the center space between the two lines of ships. They were at their most vulnerable here and this phase had to be executed quickly, not only to get the attacking troops to the surface to maximize their time for the ground assault but also to keep the enemy’s response time to a minimum. As the shuttles moved to the surface, Zeke destroyers flew just below them to provide a last line of defense and absorb incoming rounds coming from the surface aimed at the small craft. It proved to be a wise move as the defenders realized the situation and switched their attention to the shuttles. Missiles began to come from the surface base and the remaining floaters on the far western side of the spaceport. They homed in on the flock of shuttles.

  The Royal Navy responded with interceptor missiles, gunfire, and lasers. As a small number of incoming missiles survived all the de
fensive measures, the escorting destroyers jumped in front of the missiles and took hits to their shields. It was almost enough. One shuttle took a direct hit and disintegrated in a single explosion. Another craft took two cannon rounds. The damaged shuttle aborted its mission and landed in the bay of a nearby escort destroyer. Two more sustained hits but stayed in formation.

  Every enemy defensive position caught Zeke fire in return. Tactical was monitoring the ground assault portion of the plan for flag operations. She and her ops people worked fast and the sources of incoming fire were plotted quickly and firing assignments adjusted accordingly. Zeke ships hammered each OrCon position, starting with the nearest ones. The volume of fire coming at the shuttles decreased markedly as enemy floaters and surface positions were raked with ordnance and the majority fell silent, either destroyed or not wanting to risk further retaliation. The shuttles landed in three landing zones, and the Royal Marines quickly disembarked and fanned out. They received only sporadic ground fire as the defensive troops were security forces not trained to repel a large assault.

  The attackers gave them no time to organize or set up a defensive line. The Royal Marines took cover and returned fire as necessary but were quick to move to the attack. Organized in platoon strength for the surface assault and squad strength for the subsurface fight, the warriors quickly took the fight to the enemy. They pinned troops down with fire as other marines maneuvered to get close so as to take out the defenders with grenades or close-in fire. On the surface, as the OrCon troops were killed or pushed back, the pirate-armed shuttles provided valuable fire support. Hovering only a few meters off the ground, the shuttles responded to comm calls for support by using their laser cannons to destroy any position not easily overrun by ground troops. The surface attack was moving well. With the aerial bombardment less than one kilometer in front of them and moving at the pace of the advancing marines, the enemy had to feel like they were being hit by a tidal wave of destruction.