by D. J. Holmes
Between the nuclear detonations and energy released by asteroids striking the planet’s surface, Drake’s sensors were momentarily overwhelmed. Before they cleared, James’ fleet opened up with their own point defenses. Space around Drake became so dense with fire that nothing of the Karacknid fleet could be seen. Sixty missiles made it past his fleet’s point defenses. One targeted Drake. A last-minute AM missile from one of the corvettes protecting Drake just managed to take it out. As other antimatter explosions erupted within his fleet, James knew others weren’t so lucky. It took just sixty seconds for sixteen ships to be confirmed killed. As the number rose, James shifted his focus back to the Karacknid fleet. He needed to know he hit them harder. “How successful was our attack?” he demanded.
“Four battlestations are gone. We’ve taken out twenty-two other ships. At least one of them was a battleship, Admiral,” Ivanov reported at once. “Multiple other ships have been hit and taken damage. Our second salvo is three minutes out from their point defenses.”
Two more, James thought. He would hit the Karacknids with two more salvos and then see how things were. If he could degrade the Karacknids’ point defense strength quickly enough, he could overwhelm them within an hour. If not, it could take twice that time or longer. In such an extended missile duel his losses would be high. Far too high given how easily the Karacknids could replace their losses. “Let’s hit them again,” he said to his command staff.
As another missile salvo raced away from his fleet, James braced himself for the next group of Karacknid missiles that were fast approaching. Soon point defense fire flared out from all his ships. “Admiral,” one of Drake’s sensor officers called out amidst the general din of the bridge. “Admiral,” the officer had to shout to get James’ attention.
“What is it Sub Lieutenant?” James asked as he turned and tried to find the officer.
“A new contact has just appeared on the gravimetric plot. It’s just jumped out of shift space on the far end of the system. Two of our picket ships are moving to intercept,” the officer replied.
James’ eyebrows furrowed. He didn’t need to be distracted with such minor information. “Keep me informed,” he snapped, not wanting to waste energy on reprimanding the Sub Lieutenant.
“That’s not all Admiral,” the Sub Lieutenant called even as James turned away from her. “The drive signature, it’s heavily distorted, but the computer still estimates that it’s from Misfit.” James was already turning back as the Lieutenant continued. “She’s under the command of Commodore Scott. Her ship is not scheduled to return for at least a couple of weeks and she is meant to be part of a larger squadron.”
“I know exactly who commands Misfit,” James replied. His mind was already whirling as he tried to figure out why Scott had returned so early. “Show me the gravimetric plot,” he requested. A moment later one of his command chair’s holo projections showed the far end of the system. He had six ships picketing the shift passage just in case the Karacknids tried to sneak any reinforcements into the system. Between two of them a fainter gravimetric signal almost appeared to be flashing. It was as if Misfit’s engines were on the brink of powering down. Just as James opened his mouth to give an order to transmit a request for an update to Misfit, fourteen other contacts appeared on the gravimetric plot right behind Scott’s ship. James’ order turned to a groan. The contacts were Karacknids!
*
IS Misfit, minutes earlier.
“I think we’re going to make it,” Sub Lieutenant Rodgers said as he looked up from his command terminal. He had several deep cuts along his right cheek and blood had flown down his neck and dried to leave three long streaks that almost looked like tattoos. “The shift drive is still fluctuating wildly, but it’s no worse than before. We are only three minutes away now.”
Scott nodded to him and leaned back in her command chair. The movement caused a sigh to escape her lips. Ever so gently she closed her eyes. Her head was throbbing. The pain in her abdomen had subsided to a dull ache, but she didn’t think that was a good sign. The Karacknid antimatter missile that had struck her command had taken out twenty percent of her ship’s mass. She had lost half her bridge crew and more than sixty percent of Misfit’s crew. Somehow the ship had held together. Her shift drive had barely been functional, but it had been enough to jump away from the frigates that had been chasing her. For the last two days what was left of her officers and crew had fought tirelessly to keep the ship together. Twice they had almost lost the shift drive. An unplanned reversion would have ripped Misfit apart. More than twenty of her crew had died from their injuries along the journey. Including Misfit’s First Lieutenant. Scott had cried when he had passed. Nevertheless, she had been forced to keep going. She hadn’t slept since entering shift space. She hadn’t even left her command chair. Despite the urgings of her Sub Lieutenants, she knew she couldn’t afford to get up. Misfit could have encountered a problem at any second.
But we’re almost there, she told herself as the pain in her head made her groan again. We are almost there. With a great deal of effort, she forced her eyes open. A hypospray with more stimulant sat in her lap. She was tempted to use it, but the Karacknid HQ system was so close now. The adrenaline from reaching their goal would keep her awake. After she warned James, she could sleep for days or even months. She didn’t care at this stage. Misfit was not savable. She’d have to transfer her crew to the nearest Allied warship as soon as possible. Then she could finally rest.
“Reverting to real space in twenty seconds,” the same Sub Lieutenant announced, his voice full of relief.
Every muscle in Scott’s body tensed despite the pain as her ship prepared to exit shift space. She had no idea if Misfit would hold together or not. As the reversion sent a tremor through the ship, more than one Sub Lieutenant let out a gasp of concern. Though she wanted to close her eyes, Scott forced them to stay open. If her ship was going to be ripped apart, she wasn’t going to cower from it. Miraculously, despite several additional tremors that were far from normal, nothing catastrophic happened. As soon as she was sure her ship wasn’t going to break apart, Scott jumped into action. “Get our short-range COM array active immediately and see if we can pick anything up on our passives,” she ordered. With only one reactor operating at eighteen percent and her gravimetric and active sensors gone, Misfit barely had enough energy to keep the shift drive and what little life support systems that were left active. Now that the shift drive was no longer in use, Scott could get the short-range COM array going. Fixing it had been one of her priorities over the last two days.
“I think I’ve picked up something off the port bow,” a Sub Lieutenant reported. “There’s a ship moving our way.”
“Hail them,” Scott requested immediately. Seconds later she was talking to a COM officer from the destroyer Oak.
“Repeat, Misfit, I need your identification codes before I can put you through to my Captain,” the officer said for the second time.
Scott swore at her. “Can’t you see the damage we’ve taken! We lost our main computer with its identification codes. We are on secondary and tertiary systems here. Let me speak to your Captain immediately. I’ve got intelligence of vital importance.”
“That’s against protocol Misfit,” the officer replied. “We are closing in on visual range, once we confirm your identity, I can pass you through.”
Scott swore several more times. She hadn’t fought her way past an entire Karacknid battlefleet and worked herself to death to be turned away by a junior officer. “Get me your Captain now or I will open fire on you!” she roared. Her threat was empty, but it was all she had.
“Commodore,” one of her Sub Lieutenants called out, fear filling his voice. “I’m detecting more ships on the passive sensors. They’re coming in from behind us. I think they’re Karacknids!”
Scott turned towards the only holographic display still working on the bridge. Fear surged within her. “They’ve followed us!” she groaned. “Transmit our log
s to Oak immediately,” she ordered. “Wait,” she said as she shook her head. Oak was in as much trouble as Misfit. There was no guarantee they would take her logs seriously and send them on to Somerville in time. “Power up the long-range COM relay,” she ordered instead.
“But Commodore, we don’t have the energy to get it up to a usable efficiency,” another Sub Lieutenant complained.
“Cut power to every other system on the ship,” Scott ordered without hesitation. When the Sub Lieutenant hesitated, she half screamed at her officers. “Every other ship in our squadron died to get us here. Do it now or it will have been for nothing!”
The officer immediately turned and hunched over her terminal. “Long range COMs are active,” she said without looking up. “Your command chair still has audio and visual recording capabilities. Life support will begin to run out in two minutes.”
“Thank you,” Scott said as she turned from her officer. She knew the Karacknids would be on them even before that. Taking a deep breath, she prepared to say her last words.
Chapter 24
Often the outcomes of battles are impacted by one decision, often taken days or even weeks in advance. Cadets must learn this lesson from the history of the Imperial Fleet. They must understand that the fate of entire fleets, of thousands of warships, may depend on actions they take when they think nothing is on the line, for when it comes to war, every decision has consequences.
-Excerpt from Empire Rising, 3002 AD.
“No!” James cried as he smashed his fist into his command chair. Even as Karacknid missiles punched through his defenses and exploded, his focus was on the other end of the system. The Karacknid frigates that had jumped in behind Misfit had released a wave of missiles. Oak and Tusk had just been taken out. Even as he cried out, two missiles intersected with Misfit. In an instant, all three contacts disappeared from Drake’s gravimetric plot. “No,” he cried again as he shook his head. Closing his eyes, he punched his command chair several times, his teeth grinding together. He had just lost another friend. Not again… not another one, he thought as the same overwhelming sense of loss he had experienced when he had heard of Gupta’s death washed over him.
“Admiral,” Miyagi shouted almost in his ear. “Admiral, we’ve lost another fourteen ships. What are your orders?”
James almost ignored Miyagi. With a great deal of reluctance, he pulled back from the sense of loss threatening to engulf him. With burning eyes, he turned towards the Karacknid fleet still in orbit, hiding between their battlestations. He had no way to strike at the ships who had mercilessly hunted Misfit down and killed her. But he did have Karacknid warships under his guns. “We keep fighting!” he growled in rage. “Hit them again and again.”
“Aye Admiral,” Miyagi responded before issuing orders to James’ command staff.
Though he was still in a fit of rage, James smiled when he saw many more battlestations and warships had been destroyed. The Karacknids had lost perhaps as much as fifteen percent of their strength. The battle was going his way. He was going to crush them. The amount of destroyed ships wouldn’t make up for having to watch Scott’s command being destroyed but he was angry and killing Karacknids felt good. As another wave of missiles shot from his ships, James willed them on, his fists still in tight balls. He was trying his best not to think of the last time he had spoken with Scott. Nor of the hundreds of times before that.
“Admiral,” the same Sub Lieutenant who had first told him about Misfit called out a minute later. “We’ve got a COM message coming through from Misfit.”
The next few seconds were a blur to James. Somehow, whether he ordered it or not, a holo image of Scott appeared from his command chair. He gasped. Scott looked like death warmed up. She had a deep gash on her forehead. It was so deep that he could see a faint hint of white from her skull. Her eyes were wide and her skin was pale. It looked like she was hunched over as if she was protecting her right side. James’ heart went out to his friend. Whatever she had gone through, it had been horrible. She’s at peace now, he consoled himself as he fought back tears. His friend looked to be in so much pain.
“Admiral Somerville,” she began, her lips moving slowly. Every word sounded like it increased her discomfort. “We encountered a Karacknid battlefleet over ten thousand warships strong. They have thousands of supply freighters with them. I think they have enough supplies to begin an offensive immediately. We managed to get past them, but they are only hours behind us at most. I am sorry. I lost my squadron. Misfit isn’t long for this world either. You have to get your fleet out of here immediately. They will trap you if you don’t. I’m sorry we couldn’t get here sooner. I’m sorry I have let you down. Tell..” Before Scott could finish her sentence, the recording ended.
James’ head whipped towards the COM officer. “That’s all we’ve received,” she said before James could demand to hear the rest. The officer shook her head. “Misfit wasn’t able to transmit anything else before…”
James had to shut his eyes tightly to stop more tears from forming. Scott had given her life to warn him of this new fleet and yet she had died feeling she had let him down! Taking a deep breath to steady himself, he raised a hand and rubbed his eyes. As soon as he was sure his emotions wouldn’t get the better of him, he snapped them open. Fisher, Miyagi, and the rest of his command staff were staring at him. For a second he glanced at the Karacknid fleet base. He had them beat. It was only a matter of time, but ten thousand Karacknid warships was not a force to be trifled with. Not even for the few minutes it would take to fire another salvo or two. “Full reverse,” he ordered. “Get the fleet out of here. Then plot a course back to Earth. Maximum acceleration.”
As his ships pulled back, they fired one final salvo, then they had to defend themselves as a wave of Karacknid missiles struck them. Nine warships were destroyed and four badly damaged. “Evacuate all of them,” James ordered at once. “There’s no time to try and repair them. We need to pull back as fast as possible.” If the Karacknid battlefleet appeared as his ships were disengaging, he would not make it to the shift passage he had entered the system from. Worse, what was left of the Karacknid fleet at their fleet base could pursue him and delay him until he fell under the battlefleet’s guns. As soon as James saw that shuttles were starting to take off from the damaged ships, he turned to Miyagi. “Organize six of our fastest frigates. Dispatch them back to Earth immediately. Koroylov, Nogamoro and Empress Christine need to know what is happening. This battlefleet could already have plans to advance straight to Earth. They need to begin preparing our defenses. Especially if we get trapped here.”
“At once Admiral,” Miyagi responded.
Before he could turn to Ivanov and Martinez to arrange the frigates, new contacts appeared on the gravimetric plot. Both James and Miyagi stared at them as their concern grew. The four scouts James had stationed at the shift passage were racing away from it. Behind them, more contacts joined the twelve frigates that had destroyed Misfit. The number rose quickly to around sixty but then stopped. James glanced at Miyagi and nodded for him to get back to work. The Karacknid battlefleet hadn’t arrived just yet. But it could at any second, James was all too aware. The frigates could be the final part of the force that had chased Misfit, or it could be the advance scouts of the main Karacknid fleet. There will be no way to know until the battlefleet arrives. And by then it could be too late.
When his last missile salvo crashed into the Karacknid fleet base, James almost didn’t notice he was so focused on getting his fleet out of the system. There were scouts arrayed around the system, several squadrons out raiding nearby Karacknid worlds and Admiral Lightfoot’s fleet operating in the region of Jaranna and James had to get word to them all. It was only when Anderson drew his attention to his final salvo that he glanced at the holo display. A single battlestation and twenty ships were destroyed. They hadn’t been the main target of James’ last salvo though. At least thirty supply stations and construction yards were taken out by his missile
s. James had no idea if the stations held supplies the battlefleet had intended to use in whatever operations they had planned, but he hoped it would cause them some delay.
Just twenty minutes later several consoles on Drake’s bridge beeped. More contacts had been detected by the gravimetric sensor. This time, as James, Fisher and Miyagi watched the gravimetric plot, the number did not stop rising. For a full twelve minutes hundreds and hundreds of ships appeared as they jumped out of shift space and powered up their impulse engines. Only when Drake’s counter reached ten thousand four hundred and eighteen did the number plateau. A deathly silence settled onto the bridge. Hearing about a fleet of ten thousand warships was one thing. Seeing it charging towards you was another entirely.
“We’ve got activity from the fleet base,” Anderson said almost in a whisper. “The Karacknid fleet there is preparing to break orbit.”
