by D. J. Holmes
“Aye Captain,” Maguire responded as she bobbed her head.
“McMasters,” Emilie added as she turned to Intrepid’s sensor console. “Do the same for every other contact in the system. I want to know exactly where every ship will be by the time that new contact gets within weapons range.” As her officers got to work, Emilie waited patiently. One of the key strategic benefits the Valley afforded an attacker was that news of an incursion could only leave the Valley via three systems. Two on its eastern side and one on its western. That also meant that reinforcements could only enter the Valley through those same shift passages. And if news never left the valley of Becket’s attack, then the reinforcements would be very slow in coming. Neither Becket or Emilie thought they’d stop news escaping completely but delaying it was certainly possible.
Emilie frowned as she looked at the sensor readings of the system. Launching a sneak attack against the Karacknid courier ship was going to be difficult. With so many eyes watching, Emilie could destroy the Karacknid destroyer and in the process inform every Karacknid freighter Captain in the system that something was afoot. Yet if the destroyer had news of Admiral Becket’s raid, destroying it would only alert the freighters that something was happening, not that a full enemy fleet was operating within the Valley. Still, if she could, Emilie wanted to stop news of Becket’s attack getting out without raising the alarm at all.
When the analysis of all the contacts in the system was finished and displayed on the holo projector, Emilie smiled. Only two freighters would be in the system by the time the contact reached the shift passage. Both could be taken out without too much difficulty. Along with Intrepid, Becket had assigned the destroyers Hawk and Gremlin to Emilie’s command. “Send orders for Hawk and Gremlin to intercept each freighter,” Emilie ordered. “Put us onto a course to intercept that destroyer. I want them within plasma cannon range thirty light seconds out from the shift passage.”
As her ships, still in stealth, split up and spread out, Emilie watched the Karacknid destroyer’s progress across the system. Its commander was certainly pushing his ship to the limit. Emilie knew Intrepid could be pushed in a similar fashion, though not for long. Perhaps for the time it would take to pass through a system or two. In contrast, she guessed the Karacknid commander intended to push his ship all the way to whatever fleet base he had orders to bring the news of Becket’s attack to. A beep from Intrepid’s sensor console made Emilie glance at Sub Lieutenant McMasters.
“A new freighter has just lit off its engines,” McMasters explained as he glanced up at his Captain. “It’s headed for our shift passage too.”
“Show me,” Emilie requested as she grimaced. Another freighter meant another witness. The flight path of the new contact justified Emilie’s concerns. The freighter would be more than close enough to the other two freighters that she intended to destroy to detect what was about to happen. “There’s nothing for it,” she said as she turned to Jones. “It has to go too.” When Jones nodded, she turned to her COMs officer. “Signal Gremlin. Tell her to leave her freighter to us and get close enough to intercept this new contact.”
“Yes Captain,” Sub Lieutenant Ramires acknowledged.
For forty minutes Emilie watched the Karacknid destroyer draw closer and closer to her command. With the destroyer so intent on whizzing across the system, she was confident it wouldn’t detect Intrepid as she remained in stealth. So much excess energy was leaking from the Karacknid warship that its sensors couldn’t be operating at anywhere near one hundred percent efficiency anyway. As the Karacknids crossed over the threshold of the maximum range of her heavy plasma cannons Emilie remained still on her command chair. She waited a handful more seconds until it was in optimal range. “Fire!” she snapped. Each of Intrepid’s six heavy plasma cannons shot out deadly bolts. In three seconds they covered the distance between the ships. The Karacknid destroyer had just fired her maneuvering thrusters when four bolts struck home. Three ripped apart her insides whilst the fourth punched right out the other side of the small warship. Seconds later it broke in two. The ship’s momentum made each section of the destroyer spin wildly out of control.
For several seconds, the three freighters in the system continued as if nothing had happened. Then, one by one, the Captains figured out they were in danger. The two freighters nearest the shift passage increased their acceleration whilst the third decelerated, clearly thinking it was safer to head back the way it had come. Within thirty seconds of Emilie’s order to fire both Hawk and Gremlin revealed themselves. Hawk did so by pummeling its freighter with plasma bolts until the freighter broke apart. Gremlin hadn’t been able to get close enough to its target to attack from stealth. Instead she powered up her engines and gave chase to the decelerating freighter. Emilie didn’t have to watch to know that the freighter stood no chance. Instead she shifted her focus to the original freighter she had tasked Gremlin to target. “After them,” she ordered.
Intrepid’s engines and reactors powered up to full and the exploration cruiser announced itself as her acceleration created gravimetric waves. The freighter quickly turned away from Intrepid as Emilie’s ship charged after it. The turn gave the freighter an extra ten minutes, but that was all. As soon as Intrepid got close enough, three salvos of plasma bolts blew the freighter apart. The moment the action was over, Intrepid reverted to stealth. Hawk and Gremlin had already done so. Emilie checked the main holo display of the system and the gravimetric sensors. The system had gone quiet. With a nod of approval, she turned to her bridge officers. “Send a rendezvous point for Hawk and Gremlin to return to us. Then put us back in the same spot we where before the Karacknid destroyer appeared. Well done everyone. Now let’s get ready to do it again.” We’ve given you some time, Emilie thought as her mind turned to Admiral Becket. Make the best use of it.
*
Intrepid, 19th November 2483 AD (three days later).
An alarm on her COM unit woke Emilie with a start. She let out a gentle groan. She had been dreaming of Alvarez. Turning over she reached for her COM unit. “What is it?” she asked as she tapped it.
“Three new contacts have just entered the system Captain,” Lieutenant Maguire informed her. “They’re not charging with abandon across the system, but they’re definitely making a decent turn of speed.”
“I’ll be there presently,” Emilie responded. “Ask Jones to join us on the bridge.”
“Yes Captain,” Intrepid’s Second Lieutenant replied.
By the time Emilie got to the bridge and analyzed the sensor data in front of her, she knew there would be no hiding her actions this time. Though Hawk and Gremlin’s stealth tech was good, it wasn’t quite up to Intrepid’s standards. There was no way all three ships could lie in wait for the three Karacknid warships. And Intrepid couldn’t take them on her own. “We’ll see if we can let them get into missile range and then we’ll engage them,” Emilie informed her officers. The Karacknid ships were three destroyers. Though Intrepid was the size of a medium cruiser, she didn’t quite have the same armaments. Still, with the element of surprise, Emilie was confident her ships could take the Karacknids in a missile duel. “Then we may as well take out as many Karacknid freighters as we can. Run targeting solutions on all of them. We’ll hit as many with missiles as we can. Some are going to get out, but if we can make this look like a small raid, who knows what the Karacknid commanders who hear about it will make of our actions.”
For the next twenty minutes Intrepid, Hawk and Gremlin slowly maneuvered to place themselves between the three Karacknid warships and the shift passage out of the Lower Valley. Emilie ran a couple of simulated engagements to ready herself for the coming battle. Lieutenant Maguire interrupted her in the middle of one. “Captain, a new warship has just entered the system. It’s lighting up the gravimetric sensors.”
Emilie looked up and had to fight not to swear. The new contact had come into the system from a different shift passage than the first three Karacknid warships. Though it too wa
s heading out of the Valley. Given its speed it was a fair bet it had come from a system Becket had attacked as well. “Both groups of ships are carrying news of Becket’s raid,” she said as she thought out loud. “They’ll be communicating with one another. If they didn’t know it is a full-on invasion, they will now.” Emilie paused to take a deep breath. “We have to stop them if we can. What data do we have on that ship?”
“It’s another destroyer Captain,” McMasters informed her.
Emilie grimaced and brought a hand up to rub her jaw. Ship for ship she reckoned it was a toss-up between a similarly sized Karacknid and Human warship. That being the case, she fancied her ships’ chances against what had to be Karacknid border garrison ships. She was sure the Karacknids would have their best ships and Captains assigned to the warfront with the Alliance. Yet Karacknid antimatter missiles made that way of weighing things almost useless. Just one Karacknid missile punching through her ships’ point defenses was all it would take to destroy anyone of them. Do I have a choice?” she asked herself. If the loss of one of her ships or even all three of them gave Becket’s fleet another week of freedom in the Lower Valley, then the trade-off would be worth it. If we don’t stop them, Becket could find herself being hunted by a Karacknid fleet that could destroy all of her forces, Emilie thought. There was only one choice before her. Her next thought made her grimace again. Who to send? Both Gremlin and Hawk had good Captains. Emilie had come to like Gremlin’s Captain. That almost made her hesitate. But she knew in her gut what the right call was. “Get me Captain Mount on a COM channel,” she requested.
“Captain, I’m afraid I have a tough ask of you,” Emilie said as she came straight to the point. She was used to leading others into battle but ordering a subordinate to go in her stead was new. She didn’t trust herself to get overly familiar with Mount now.
“The lone Karacknid destroyer,” Mount responded. “It has to be stopped. Gremlin is up to the task.”
“I knew she would be,” Emilie said, quietly thankful Mount hadn’t made her say it. “Good luck Captain.”
“And to you,” Mount replied as he saluted. “Neither of us have an easy task.”
“We’ll speak after,” Emilie said as she returned his gesture and cut the COM channel. She took a second to compose herself then looked back at the holo screen. The Karacknid warships were still continuing on their courses. “Signal Hawk, tell her we will begin the battle in formation Delta-two. We will break stealth and open fire on my command.”
“Hawk has acknowledged Captain,” Sub Lieutenant Ramires informed her moments later.
Now we wait, Emilie thought. The Karacknid ships were still an hour away from the point where Intrepid could open fire and Emilie had been in more than enough battles to know that the time would drag by ever so slowly. Despite her best efforts to distract herself, it was worse than she remembered. Concern for Intrepid and Hawk, and even more so for Gremlin filled her mind and made the seconds tick by at a snail’s pace. Eventually McMasters informed everyone that the three Karacknid destroyers were just five minutes away from powered missile range. “Still no sign that they have detected us?” Emilie asked even though she had been watching the sensors as closely as anyone.
“Not a hint,” Maguire confirmed.
“Make sure everyone is alert and ready,” Emilie responded. If the Karacknids had detected her and they were smart, they would continue as if they knew nothing. But we’re not going to let them get to energy weapon range, Emilie said to herself. For a moment, she stiffened as the destroyers crossed the maximum powered missile threshold. Yet when they didn’t open fire, Emilie forced herself to relax and wait patiently. If they weren’t going to fire, she was happy to wait until they were close enough that she could fire her first salvo and have it strike home before they could fire two in response. If she could destroy one Karacknid ship in the first moments of the battle, the odds would dramatically shift in her favor. As patiently as she could, she waited for a full three minutes before giving the order, “Fire!” Seconds later, twenty-six missiles shot away from Intrepid and Hawk. “Maximum acceleration. Put us onto heading one nine four point seven.” She focused on the Karacknid destroyers. Their reaction would tell her how good their commanders were. As the seconds ticked by, far quicker than before, her confidence grew. It wasn’t until the missiles had been racing away for sixteen seconds that the Karacknid ships altered course. Energy spikes followed the maneuver and they each fired ten missiles of their own. But not perfectly, Emilie noticed. One of the Karacknid ships had hesitated by a couple of seconds. It wasn’t much, but their salvo wasn’t perfectly coordinated. And they’re targeting both of us, she happily recognized. Whilst all her missiles were targeting the lead Karacknid destroyer the Karacknids had evenly dispersed their fire between Intrepid and Hawk.
Having fired first, Emilie watched her missiles tangle with the Karacknid point defenses before having to worry about her own ship. With every missile targeting one enemy, they were slightly easier to take out. Yet it also meant the three that got close enough to detonate and release their grazer beams devastated the Karacknid destroyer. Of the nine beams released, six struck the Karacknid ship. In real time Emilie watched two of them burn holes so deep into the destroyer’s hull that armor and debris were blasted out the other side. Though no secondary explosions finished the destroyer off, it rolled over and lost all acceleration. Moments later it all but disappeared off Intrepid’s sensors as its reactors went cold.
“Hawk is launching long range AM missiles!” Maguire announced, drawing Emilie’s attention back to the danger her own ship was in. Having never seen the missiles in action before, Emilie watched closely. As the first two missiles exploded and released a wall of shrapnel, taking out three Karacknid missiles, she was impressed. When the second wave killed another two enemy missiles she became jealous. “Intrepid needs to get her hands on some of those,” she said to her bridge crew. As she hoped, it drew a few smiles and chuckles and relieved some of the tension. “But we’re far from defenseless. Let’s show Hawk what we can do,” she added.
Flak cannon rounds, AM missiles, point defense plasma bolts and laser beams reached out towards the remaining Karacknid missiles from both Human ships. The smaller explosions from flak rounds and AM missiles were soon joined by larger detonations as enemy missiles were taken out. Emilie gripped the armrest of her command chair. The first enemy salvo was going to be the deadliest. On the main holo plot she watched the distance to the enemy missiles rapidly countdown as the number of contacts fell. With just eight seconds until the missiles would be close enough to detonate, there were only four left. Then two more were taken out. Fear welled up inside her as the remaining two dodged the final wave of AM missiles launched at them. In a split second, plasma bolts and laser beams converged on both missiles and they detonated. Cheers erupted from around Emilie. She allowed them for several seconds as she turned and smiled at Jones. Then she put on a more serious face. “Concentrate,” she called to her bridge officers. “Fire a second salvo as soon as the tubes are reloaded. Target the second Karacknid destroyer.” She knew she could target both ships and stand a good chance of taking them out with her next volley, but she didn’t want to take a chance. Better to take out one ship than have both survive to fire a third salvo.
The rest of the battle played out exactly as Emilie anticipated. Her second salvo destroyed the second Karacknid destroyer and her third finished the battle. In return, the twenty missiles of the Karacknid second salvo failed to breach Intrepid and Hawk’s point defenses. The final ten missiles of the third volley released by the lone Karacknid destroyer stood no chance of doing so. As soon as the destroyer was gone, Emilie turned to a secondary holo display and sought out Gremlin. Mount’s command was engaged in a bitter duel with the Karacknid destroyer. The display indicated that two salvos had already been exchanged. It looked like the destroyer had been hit by one grazer beam whilst Gremlin had narrowly escaped a proximity detonation. Two Karacknid mis
siles were diving towards Gremlin. Emilie felt the spike of fear she had had for Intrepid shoot through her again. One missile was taken out but the second detonated. At such a distance, Intrepid’s sensors couldn’t tell if it had been a direct hit or not. Emilie leaned forward in her command chair. “What happened?” she demanded; her voice full of frustration. Then the sensors cleared. Gremlin was still there, but it looked like she had been bathed in anti-matter. A proximity hit! “Gremlin’s gaseous shields must have borne the brunt of the antimatter,” she said to her officers. She shook her head. It looked like the destroyer had lost almost all of its valstronium armor on its starboard side. Point defenses and missile tubes were also missing and several holes were open to space. Despite the damage and loss of life, Emilie stared in amazement as the destroyer rolled and presented it undamaged side to its opponent. Fresh missiles shot out of her undamaged tubes.
Turning her attention to the Karacknid destroyer, Emilie was just in time to see its point defenses engage a previous salvo from Gremlin. One missile got close enough to detonate and one of its three grazer beams lanced into the destroyer. Amazingly, the Karacknid destroyer shrugged off the hit and opened fire again. However, just eight missiles rather than the normal ten were shot into space. She is damaged, Emilie thought with relief.
