The Curanian Dominance: The Linda Eccles Series - Volume Three

by Robert Woodard

  “The real battle is happening out there,” Ron mumbled. He had no hope of convincing the upper echelon of ESD or the Governments to release the ships. The self-protective pricks were afraid that losing the fleet on Rapatine would leave Earth wide open. That was true, but only if the Curanians could find Earth. It was a huge, wide universe out there. Earth was a pea floating within the ocean of that universe. The chances that the Curanians would stumble upon it were ludicrous.

  “We should meet them out there,” Ron mumbled to himself, “and put a stop to their nonsense once and for all.”

  Since he was powerless to do anything about Rapatine, and he would have to trust that Philip could somehow outsmart them, Ron returned his thoughts to this so-called Supreme. “If we can’t beat your fleet, Supreme, then as God is my witness, I will see to it we blow that evil heart of yours right out of your body!”

  Ron got up and kicked his plastic trashcan across the floor. He noticed when one of his support staffers leaned back in his chair to look into his office. The fury of knowing Philip was being sacrificed for the good of Earth ran right down to his toes. It seemed like humanity was forever destined to suffer from the interference of the Governments in how best to fight a war. Damn it! I was trained for this very moment, just like Philip. Get the hell out of my way and let me take the battle to these damn Curanians.

  “Ensign Tadle!” Ron yelled out.

  “Yes sir?” the Ensign answered while quickly appearing in the doorway.

  “The very second that Curanian named Muni gets settled, I want him in this office. Is that understood?”

  “Yes sir!”

  If he couldn’t help Philip, he would make sure that his death was not going to be in vain. This Supreme, whoever he or she was, was going to pay dearly for his friend’s death. Ron would see to that, even if he had to park his fleet over the very building that housed the Governments and convinced them under the threat of bombardment. “Retribution is coming, you god-damned Alien!”

  Chapter Nineteen

  The Ciat dropped out of stage-two exactly five ticks short of the intended attack coordinates, and right on plan. From the wonderfully designed glass dome that represented his Control Deck, Plon watched the other ships dropping into regular space to form up on his mighty ship.

  “Nage, you sure knew how to design a ship. Too bad you couldn’t keep out of Kold’s way.” Plon smiled at the thought that Nage’s loss was his gain. Not only was he the proud owner of the largest and mightiest ship the Curanian’s ever built, but he resided within a space with a 360-degree view all around him.

  “Plon, the Kero is standing by awaiting orders to make their run,” Jime reported.

  Plon didn’t bother to look down at her. He simply ignored her and glanced at the tactical map instead. The flat screen embedded into the wrap-around console automatically pulled in the map for their current location. He could see the image of the Kero sitting far off to one side of the map. Plon figured that after Denc had communicated his location, he had moved his ship well away from where he expected the fleet would drop in for the attack.

  Hitting the communication selection and then tapping on the image of the Kero, he was instantly connected to their private frequency. “Control to Kero, stand by to execute your phase of the battle plan.”

  “Kero standing by as directed, Control.”

  Looking back at the tactical map, Plon could see that all the ships of his lead fleet were present and currently forming up for when they would make the quick-jump to lead the main attack. He now waited confirmation his second fleet had taken up position within their assigned location, too.

  “Control, Veru, all ships are present and moving into attack formation.”

  Nodding to himself, Plon received the confirmation he desired. Both fleets arrived on time and on location. He would give them three or four hundred ticks to complete forming up before he sent the Kero in to see what was sitting in front of them.

  The message from the Veru brought back the memories of his command aboard her before he took possession of the Ciat. The Veru had been the largest ship before the egotistical Nage had the Ciat built. That had obviously been with the Supreme’s blessing, of course. Nage had been in her good graces back then.

  Smiling at the thought, Plon wondered if he was any different when he designed the Veru. He had even given it a new classification at the time of her commissioning—Heavy Assaulter. Nage had one-upped him by classifying the Ciat as a Super Assaulter. Considering the Veru was only three-quarter the size of the Ciat, he supposed it was appropriate. Besides, the Ciat had nearly twice the number of guns. When Plon had the chance to take possession of the beast, he didn’t hesitate.

  The completely transparent domed section above the command deck was a real plus on the Ciat, too. The Veru only offered a dedicated section of the command deck where the Control had access to what was happening with his fleet, but the Ciat had a dedicated control deck, and Plon could see the rationale behind it. It was quiet while offering an unobstructed view to whatever was happening around the Ciat. Even though the console carried everything he needed to run his fleet, there was just something about having line of sight to his support ships.

  Glancing at the tactical map, which gave him a view of both fleet locations, he could see that everything was in place to begin the attack. All he needed now was a view of what lay in front of him. He knew the Kero would fill in that missing piece soon enough.

  Activating the communication link to the Kero, Plon ordered, “Control to Kero, execute.”

  ◆◆◆

  Denc lowered her command chair in preparation for entering stage-two for the short hop into the danger zone. She didn’t like the idea of being elevated if her ship took fire immediately upon her arrival.

  “Engage stage-two,” Denc ordered.

  “Entering stage-two—now,” Loge replied.

  Denc didn’t bother to respond to the update as she stared outside the forward portals. Regardless of what awaited them when they dropped back out of stage-two, she planned on being ready to react quickly. The loss of two fast attacks in Nage’s battle with these creatures ran fresh in her mind. No one ever knew what happened to the Peri or the Fice, as well as their crews. They simply failed to return and were assumed destroyed. Denc did not plan on being just another ship lost in battle.

  The five-tick hop passed so quickly that she barely had time to fret over what was coming. Her ship dropped into normal space where Denc found herself instantly surrounded by six ships close to her own size. Her eyes widened at the sight of what she feared the most.

  ◆◆◆

  Commander Lois Madrid sat quietly on the bridge of her gunship Dauntless suffering her four hours on watch. The constant tension of a potential attack seemed to have turned minutes into hours. She had only been on the bridge for forty minutes, but it seemed like three hours already. Her mind was conflicted between getting this battle over with and hoping it was all one huge false alarm.

  The added responsibility over the other five gunships assigned to her only added to her anxiety. She had drilled all the gunships so hard that she suspected she had become right unpopular with the other commanders. Lois didn’t care, though. They were the front line—the picket. They were there to prevent the attackers from getting the time needed to form into an organized attack group. She knew the gunships were only popguns against the might of a determined enemy fleet, but even popguns could annoy the hell out of someone.

  All six ships now had a time to fire response of eleven seconds from time of discovery to the first rounds leaving the barrels of the plasma cannons. Eleven seconds did not give any ship entering this system much time to react to her presence, and she highly doubted any ship dropping out of warp could find, fixate and fire at her ships faster than her ability to put a hurt onto them. If they showed up, she planned on testing that theory soon enough.

  Another very unpopular decision with the other gunships was the removal of their warp drives. Th
e extra space now carried one more plasma generator that would provide an additional thirteen seconds of maximum fire capability before they would have to retreat. Thirteen seconds of plasma bolts could inflict a lot of damage. There would be no escape for the gunships without warp capability, and each commander knew it. Their only hope would be to abandon their ship should the fleet have to bug out.

  Lois couldn’t blame the other commanders for being upset. No captain ever wanted to abandon his or her ship while it could still bring the fight to the enemy. It probably wouldn’t matter anyway. She had reviewed the battle reports from Admiral Litton’s first encounter with the Curanians. The four gunships that maintained rear guard had been swept away in less than a minute, so what chance did she have now?

  “Contact! Bearing zero-one-eight. Single ship. Classified as a Curanian fast attack.”

  Lois saw the flash of the arriving ship just moments before the specialist yelled it out. The ship had dropped right smack into the middle of the expected arrival vector that Admiral Litton provided to all ships. Her orders were clear. Fire on any ship not of human design.

  Not wasting any time, she plopped her hand on the battle station's icon that immediate filled the bridge with the warning alarm. She then hit the comm control, selected all ships, and said, “This is the Dauntless. Incoming target at vector Alpha-1. All gunships to open fire.”

  The hours of training kicked in on the bridge of the Dauntless, and she suspected the same was occurring on the other gunships. The plasma generators, already charged and ready, made it only a matter of locking onto the target and firing. She could envision six trigger-happy gun captains, one on each gunship, locking onto the ship that the tactical computer had already highlighted. Tactical also showed that eight seconds had passed since time of acquisition of the incoming ship. The first plasma bolt left the Dauntless at exactly twelve seconds. A full one-second faster than any of their practice runs. The sight made Lois proud of her crew. The space between gunships and fast attacked quickly filled with balls of energy racing each other to be the first to hit the doomed ship.

  For the brief moment it took for Denc to get her mind wrapped around her current situation, she knew her rebounders were pulling in valuable information that Plon could use to revise his attack plan. Now she just needed to get that information back out to him.

  “Emergency—stage-two!” Denc yelled.

  That was all she needed to say to put her efficient crew into action. A reverse jump directly back along her incoming path had been preset for just this exact situation. No one wasted time acknowledging her order. With battle-hardened skill, the Kero spun around and began to pick up speed while the stage-two unit prepared to engage.

  “Incoming enemy fire!”

  Denc had been focusing on the directional coordinates, but she quickly shifted her eyes to the sweep feed. So many energy bursts were coming her way that she didn’t waste time counting them. Her head swept rapidly right and left to look out the side portals. The energy balls she could see grew ever larger.

  The high-pitched whine of the stage-two generator filled the bridge. Before the first burst could hit the ship, the Kero shot free of the system. Five ticks later, they dropped out of stage-two right back where they started. Denc didn’t even get to feel the relief before the first violent explosion struck the ship, followed by at least a dozen more.

  Confused at first, Denc realized that the enemy fire had been so close to the ship when it entered stage-two that it carried them right in with it. Now that the ship was back into normal space the energy balls overtook her speed to pummel her ship.

  The impacts came so fast that her crew didn’t have time to do much more than hang on. Then the bridge finally went quiet. Denc quickly scanned the control deck. The overhead ceiling had collapsed in some sections, but the lightweight material did little more than cover her bridge crew with annoying shattered fabric.

  The lights constantly blinked on and off like some child playing with the switch. They finally came on and stayed on, but much of her bridge controls remained dead. Loge’s face appeared before her, and he said, “I’ll ascertain the damage.” He disappeared again before she could respond.

  Shaking herself out of her stunned silence, Denc asked, “Communications, are they working?”

  “No, Denc, the station is dead.”

  That was unfortunate. She could have at least given Plon an update on her visual observation, even if she couldn’t send over the rebounder data yet. Looking out the charred windows, she could see the Ciat sitting large even though well away from her ship. She knew he had to have witnessed what happened and would be sending aid over to help.

  ◆◆◆

  The flash of the Kero’s return after only a few ticks startled Plon. His adversary must have been better prepared than he suspected to have chased the little ship back out of the system so fast. He hit the communication link to the Kero, but he never said a word. The series of follow-up flashes that seemed to light up the darkness around the little ship halted any further action.

  At first, Plon feared that his adversaries had somehow managed to drop right in this location and had attacked the ship, but then he quickly realized what had happened. Denc had dropped into the system, taken heavy fire, and when she jumped back out, her stage-two implosion of space had drawn the energy bolts right in with it. She escaped, only to suffer their attack here.

  “Control to Kero, report,” Plon said in the hope their communication system remained active. Only static responded.

  “Plon, sweep shows that the Kero was struck by no less than eight high-energy yield weapons,” Jime’s reported. “Her energy readings are dropping rapidly. Do you want me to send the closest screener to ascertain the damage and provide support?”

  “Yes, and have them transfer Denc back to their ship, so I can get an update on what she encountered.” Plon looked down at Jime’s as she released the communication control to relay his request.

  Looking out where the Kero sat, the ship was now lost in the darkness. Her telltale running lights were no longer visible. Glancing over his left shoulder, he saw the screener furthest on his flank peeling off to intercept them.

  While he waited, Plon tried to imagine what Denc had witnessed. Looking at the screen showing the strategic view, he brought up the detailed information on the Kero. He selected the travel time option for the ship. From time to jump to return had only been fifteen ticks. How in the world had his adversary managed to fire so many bolts at the Kero in that short amount of time? And, what had fired at her?

  Plon had no intention of moving forward with the attack until that very question was answered. Whatever had chased the Kero back out could spell trouble for him if he didn’t properly plan to counteract it. Glancing at the screener again, he could see it had covered half the distance in reaching the Kero already. He would get his answers soon enough.

  ◆◆◆

  Round one went to the humans, Philip told himself. It was quite apparent to him that the fast attack was scouting ahead, and it didn’t get much time to find out whatever it was hoping to ascertain. After so many days of waiting, something had finally happened. Now whether it was snooping around on its own or scouting in advance of the Curanian fleet was the mystery to solve.

  The gunships had acted with such incredible speed that Philip had to admire their efforts. The operational efficiency of those six ships had been impressive to witness. He clearly did right in putting Commander Madrid in charge.

  His thoughts turned to whether the fast attack had survived the attack or not. When the ship had jumped back into warp, he could see the lead plasma bolts being drawn into the void it created. Smiling, he knew they would be in for a nasty surprise when they dropped out of that void on the other end, right along with those bolts. How many were sucked in was anyone’s guess, but it looked like enough to create a nice mess of that tiny ship.

  The best scenario would be for the fast attack to be destroyed. If it reported back what
it saw while in the system, it would tip off his opponent to what was coming when he arrived. Perhaps I should reposition my fleet, just in case. Philip pondered on that thought further. It would be dangerous if his ships were in motion when the Curanian fleet dropped in, but he didn’t like the idea of his adversary knowing his current defensive position.

  “Do you believe that fast attack survived those plasma bolts, Admiral?” Roger asked.

  Turning his head to look at the Captain who was sitting in the command chair next to him on the Conviction’s bridge, Philip only shrugged. He wasn’t ready to let go of his thoughts regarding the repositioning of his fleet. He looked up at the tactical display. Roger seemed to realize the Admiral was thinking things through and went quiet again.

  “Roger, we have to go on the assumption that the Curanians are now aware of our formation. I want to quickly reposition to throw off any plans they put into place to counter it. What do you suggest?”

  Philip noticed how Roger studied the same tactical display monitor. With the entire fleet laid out on the screen it made seeing the overall picture easier. While continuing to stare at their current formation, Roger replied, “If I were their fleet commander, and I just learned that those gunships are sitting there waiting for me, I would drop in the biggest ship I had to clear them out. I would then have the remainder of my ships drop in a few seconds later to push forward to take advantage of the gap that would leave at the point of entry.”

  “And we know what their biggest ship looks like from our first battle,” Philip said while massaging his chin. “So, if we did the opposite and pulled the gunships out, they would remain safe, while we could move the Conviction and Poniard forward to deal with it. It gives us the advantage of placing their largest ship in a nasty crossfire with our big boys. Taking it out first would give us a powerful upper hand against the remainder of their ships.”