by Terry Mixon
“We’ve got a lot of work here trying to piece together what they were working on, so we’ll be staying for the next three or four days. Once we have more definitive answers, we’ll bring the station crew back to Ceres for you to question. I don’t see any reason to rush at this point. The horse already got out of the barn.”
He smiled sadly. “One of these days, I’ll get the drop on Mader and end him. He can’t keep getting lucky like this forever.
“In any case, I’m sending you everything we’re recorded under the Watson protocol to keep it to your eyes only. It’s just a bunch of video of the station, but perhaps you’ll notice something that I’ve missed. Madrid out.”
Once he had the cover message saved, he started a second one. “Agent Watson and Commodore Fields, the situation is far more dire than I’ve let on. You’re in imminent danger.”
He proceeded to explain everything he knew and what he suspected, ending with the fact that he had five ships coming back to Ceres and intended to come in under stealth.
“We’ve really got two problems,” he said in closing. “The nukes and the pirate ships. There are a couple of ways they could get the nukes on target, but it seems to me the best way is for them to come in under stealth of their own.
“If they pre-position the nukes, they can reveal themselves and pull you out of position. If you try to handle both problems, they’ll cut you to ribbons. Mark, you have a lot more in the way of tactical resources to bring to the table, so I’ll help in whatever way you need me to.
“Most of the human habitation on Ceres is in the same hemisphere, simply because it makes sense to have the cities supporting one another. That makes it unlikely they’ll drop a nuke on the far side, in my opinion. With that in mind, I’m going to place my ships in a position to cover the places with the best shot at the cities.”
He gave the video pickup a serious look. “No matter how we play this, it’s going to be an ugly fight, but there’s the possibility we can make it a decisive one with surprise and a little bit of luck on our side. We just need to make this opportunity count.”
With that, he ended the recording and encrypted it with one of the Agency protocols. Then he sealed up the other recording and the one to Watson with a Fleet code, and forwarded the combined product to Xan.
That accomplished, he had time to brood. If things went poorly, he’d have to live with the consequences of his mistakes, and he’d rather not have something like that on his conscience.
“I have something on the sensors,” Narendra Lewin said, hunched over her console. “I’m pretty sure it's a ship under stealth creeping into our containment area.”
They’d been in the region near Ceres for a little bit more than an hour, their arrival being a mix of racing to get into position and slowly slipping into the final zone at a snail’s pace so that they didn’t give themselves away while under stealth.
Brad had been afraid they’d arrive too late to make any difference. After the initial exchange of data with Freedom, he hadn’t dared to risk any further communication for fear of having the Cadre figure out he wasn’t where they expected him to be.
Now all their care was paying off. Fields had sent half of his destroyers toward Kobayashi Station with orders to circle around and cover another angle of potential attack from the Cadre.
That had the dual benefits of reducing the obvious strength the pirates would need to attack and placing reserves that could strike the Cadre on an exposed flank when they made their move.
Depending on where the pirates launched the nukes from, either Brad and his Vikings or the second destroyer group would focus on stopping the weapons of mass destruction from reaching the surface of Ceres.
Now it looked as if he and his people might be playing nuke duty.
“Are there any other Cadre ships in the area?” he asked.
The tactical officer shrugged. “Not that I’ve seen, but that hardly means anything while we’re using passive sensors. They have stealth as good as our own. The nuke is less well protected, and that’s what I spotted first. Once I narrowed it down, I spotted the ship that had to have placed it.
“The vessel is probably a destroyer, but it might be a heavy frigate. We won’t know until we can get a clear look. It’s certainly not larger than a destroyer.”
“Do you think you’ll have much luck spotting other ships?” he asked.
“All we can do is look. If we don’t, we’ll just have the time from when the nukes light their drives to when they’re about to impact to take them out. Even that is going to mean some nuclear material impacts Ceres. The closer the penetrators get, the most concentrated the fallout.
“But if we can prevent any of the nukes from penetrating the crust, that’ll limit the effects of the radiation to something manageable. Particularly if we keep the devices from exploding.”
He nodded. “Michelle, see if you can help spot any of the Cadre ships before they place nukes. Every little bit helps.”
“I’m already on it. We all are.”
“I just spotted a second ship,” Xan said. “I’m forwarding the coordinates and heading to Narendra.”
“Confirmed,” the tactical officer said a moment later. “Good eye, Xan. The beer is on me once we wrap this mission up. The second ship hasn’t deployed a nuke, but it’s in a place where I’d expect them to place one. Once again, I think this is a destroyer, but it might be a carrier.”
“How long after they place the weapons do you think they’ll fire them?” Michelle asked. “Are they going to move the ships away from the launch zone first?”
“I would.”
If Brad had been in charge of the attack, he’d reposition the attacking ships to come in at a different angle to maximize the chaos for the defense.
The choice for Fleet would then be to defend Ceres or themselves. They could do both poorly, or focus on saving either the asteroid or themselves. If not all the nukes were deployed in the opening salvo, that might even ensure that a Fleet sacrifice was in vain, accomplishing both goals.
“The second ship just deployed a nuke,” Narendra said. “Neither of them is moving away more than a couple of hundred kilometers from their payloads.”
Whatever was going to happen, Brad expected it to happen soon. “Signal our ships with the findings. I don’t know if this group is going to reveal itself, but we don’t fire on them or come out of stealth until I give the order.”
“Copy that,” Xan said. “The other ships have acknowledged the order via tightbeam.”
“Torpedo launch detected from both vessels we have on passive sensors,” Narendra said. “There could be more from other sources, but we won’t know unless we go active. It looks like the target is the Fleet station or the Fleet units in orbit near it.”
“Signal Freedom as arranged but maintain stealth,” Brad snapped. “The battle of Ceres is underway, but we’re not giving up our surprise unless we have no choice.
“It looks like they’re trying to get torpedoes onto target to disable or destroy any units they can before the fighting really starts. I’d expect some of the ships to charge in next, looking to draw any Fleet response out of position to shoot the nukes they intend to fire. Then the rest of the Cadre ships will enter the fray.
“Narendra, I want torpedoes targeted on the nukes we can see. The plans we found tell us what kind of speed they can manage. They were never designed for defending themselves, so let’s make them pay for that mistake. When they start moving, I want to take them out, along with any we’ve missed.”
“Copy that,” the tactical officer said.
“Freedom has acknowledged our warning,” Xan said.
“Now we wait to see how the battle plays out,” Brad said, settling back in his chair. “One way or the other, we’ll be fighting in a few minutes. Let’s hope we’re the hammer coming down on the Cadre and not the last-minute defense for Ceres.”
“Drives detected,” Narendra said. “Nukes, it looks like. Not the ones we
detected, or even close to us, but a group of six set farther to the northern side of Ceres. Freedom and the attached destroyers are going to have to respond.”
“Are any of the ships that fired them visible?”
“Negative. The Fleet station just lit up its active scanners at full power. They’re firing at the nukes and the torpedoes we told them were incoming. The Fleet vessels are moving to clear the area around the station.”
Since Brad and his ships hadn’t been able to go active, he had no real idea how many torpedoes Fleet was dealing with. He hoped it would be a small number that they could brush aside easily enough.
Then the screen lit up with dazzling light before the automatic dimmers shielded the crew from the flash.
“Nuclear explosion detected,” Narendra said grimly. “The Fleet station is gone. Freedom and the other ships got clear, but they have no supporting fire at this time.
“Eight ships just dropped stealth in the area the nuke penetrators came from, and they’re accelerating in. I see four frigates, two run-of-the-mill destroyers, and two Warrior-class destroyers. They’re firing at Freedom and her escorts.”
Brad’s guess had been right. The Cadre wanted to force Freedom and her escorts to choose between their own survival and that of Ceres. It was a good thing that Fields had a few cards hidden up his sleeve.
The scene ahead of them played out just like he’d guessed it would. The hidden detachment of Fleet destroyers fired a salvo of torpedoes at the enemy ships while Freedom and her consorts focused on the nukes.
Brad needed to wait until the ships near him were ready to commit. He wanted all twelve of the evil weapons in play before he revealed himself.
“A second enemy task force has come out of stealth,” Narendra said, sitting abruptly straighter. “They were right behind the hidden Fleet destroyers! They’re firing.”
It only took Brad a moment to realize he’d made another mistake in underestimating the Cadre. Regardless of what Mader had said, he had more ships in reserve than he’d let on.
“What are we looking at?” Brad asked, leaning forward.
“Eight more destroyers. They have the drop on the Fleet units, and our allies are having to turn and face them rather than engage the ships firing on Freedom.”
Two Warriors, ten older destroyers, and four frigates against a cruiser and a dozen destroyers. A close fight on a good day, but half the Fleet units were taking torpedoes from the rear, and the rest were splitting fire between a powerful attack force that could kill them and weapons that might destroy all life on Ceres.
And that didn’t count the ships hidden near Brad, waiting for the right moment to open fire with weapons of mass destruction and then join the fray.
If the Vikings didn’t act now, the tide of battle could turn and the Cadre would win.
Brad could commit his five ships to the fight, but he’d lose surprise. Then the remaining nuke penetrators would still be able to fire. He’d only spotted two of the damned things. There were four more and he was trapped in limbo until they went active, forced to watch the destruction of his allies.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
“Which two of our ships are farthest from Ceres?” Brad asked after a moment.
“Grant and Montgomery,” Michelle said.
“Xan, order them to hold position and remain in stealth. Oath, Law, and Honor are going in to help Fleet fight off these bastards. Tell Fabia and Keala I want them to hit the remaining penetrators when the Cadre fires them and then disengage. This isn’t a suicide mission, so I’d much rather them break contact and circle around than stand their ground.”
Narendra growled like an angry animal. “Freedom is focusing on the incoming penetrators while her escorts try to protect her. She’s taken out four of them, but they’ve lost three destroyers in the exchange. She’ll get the last two, but the Cadre is going to be all over them by that point.”
“What’s the flight time for our mass-driver rounds to the nukes closest to us?”
“Thirty-five and forty seconds. The two destroyers are a little farther away, so add ten seconds for them.”
“We’ll fire our Gatlings at the two penetrators we can see. Law and Honor will fire their smaller Gatlings on the penetrators as well. In addition, they’ll fire their larger mass drivers at the two destroyers we’ve detected. We’ll hope they don’t detect anything in time to react.”
Seconds later, the tactical officer nodded. “Mass-driver rounds on the way from Law, Honor, and us. Thirty seconds until initial impact. Since the targets aren’t moving, we’ve got a pretty good chance of getting hits at this short range. That’ll be more than enough for the penetrators, but maybe not the ships unless Law and Honor get solid hits with their heavier rounds.”
“Michelle, we’ll go to flank speed as soon as the second penetrator goes up. Make sure Law and Honor are with us.”
Brad watched the time slowly bleed away while he kept his other eye on the sensors. The penetrators wouldn’t make that big a show when hit, so he was watching closely to make sure that they actually hit them.
The first penetrator came apart right on schedule, undoubtedly causing great consternation on board the Cadre ship tasked with firing it. The second penetrator burst apart a few seconds later.
That part of the operation had been pretty much foreordained. Detecting mass-driver rounds in flight on passive scanners was just about impossible. Even with active scanners, it wasn’t all that easy.
“Going to full speed,” Michelle said.
“Active sensors, Narendra,” Brad ordered.
The repeater screen on his command chair blossomed with information. Since they already knew where two of the Cadre ships were, he was able to get confirmation on their class immediately: both were destroyers.
One of them must’ve realized they’d probably been spotted, because it went to full power and began evasive maneuvers that were only partially successful. They escaped the smaller mass-driver rounds but caught a burst of the heavier slugs from one of the Bound-class ships in the engineering section.
They didn’t blow up, but they immediately lost thrust and began tumbling.
“Make sure someone on Law or Honor finishes them,” Brad said coldly.
Heavy mass-driver rounds tore the second destroyer apart even as he gave the order. They ripped massive divots into the enemy ship’s hull, and then it exploded.
By that time, his three destroyers were under full power and racing toward the area where Fleet was making their final stand against the attacking ships. His ships seemed to have surprised the Cadre ships they were hiding near, because no one fired at them for long seconds.
“Signal detected from behind us,” Xan said. “It’s using the same encryption scheme we got from the shuttle you captured, sir. It’s a stand-down order. Instructions to hold fire, maintain stealth, and execute something called Jericho as soon as we engage the Cadre ships ahead of us.”
Brad had no idea why they were holding fire, but it suited his plans just fine. “Jericho is probably firing the last of the nuke penetrators,” he guessed. “Let’s hope they don’t go active before they launch them. If they see Grant and Montgomery, things will get very ugly for them very fast. How long until we can fire on the Cadre ships ahead of us with any realistic chance of hitting them?”
“We’re inside mass-driver range already, even if the odds of good hits suck,” Narendra said. “Law and Honor have already opened fire with their heavy drivers. Five minutes until we can fire torpedoes.”
Five minutes was an eternity in a space battle. Brad hoped that some of the Fleet ships were still there when he was in a position to help.
Sixty seconds later, Xan detected a signal from the ships attacking the Fleet units. It was in a different code from the one the ships behind them had used, so they couldn’t decipher the transmission.
What they could do was count the number of exchanges, of which there were several. While Brad couldn’t be certain, it felt like t
here was some kind of disagreement between the two groups.
Whoever was still hiding in stealth got the last word, though. Five ships broke off from attacking the remaining Fleet units and raced to meet Brad’s oncoming force: a Warrior and four lighter destroyers.
Fields and his people had suffered for splitting their attention. Even though they’d stopped all six of the penetrators, most of the friendly units were damaged or destroyed.
Out of the dozen destroyers Fleet had started with, six were destroyed outright and three more were combat kills. The final three were all damaged to some degree, though still fighting. Freedom was a wreck, but a fighting wreck.
Attacking them were five destroyers and a frigate. All the Cadre ships were damaged as well, but not as badly as the Fleet units. The only thing that had kept them from already sweeping the table was the skill advantage Fleet had.
And that wasn’t going to save Brad’s friends for very much longer.
“How long until we can fire on the task force coming our way?” Brad asked. “Torpedoes, not mass drivers.”
“About a hundred seconds,” Narendra said. “Law and Honor are firing mass drivers, but the other ships are evading our shots. They’ll have to get a lot closer to be effective. We’ll be exchanging torpedoes by that time.”
Brad was about to order more speed, and damn the safety margins, when one of the destroyers ahead of them ran into a wall of heavy mass-driver slugs. It had to have been a fluke, but the angle was just about perfect, blowing the bow off the enemy ship.
That resulted in the other ships scattering a bit. No one wanted a Bound-class destroyer dialed in to their location.
That separation wouldn’t affect the enemy’s offensive power much, but it sure as hell had implications on their mutual defense against incoming torpedoes. It also evened up the firepower a bit.
