“Aye sir, signal sent,” the comm. officer replied sending the prepare message as planned.
On the other side of the asteroid passageway, the star destroyer backed away at full impulse. In front of it, the jumbled remains of their ships propelled out of the entrance way. The broken wreckage was headed to the large asteroid moon that partially blocked the entrance.
The first ship out wasn’t the last destroyer in line which had taken the least amount of damage. That ship had been pushed aside and crashed into the corridor’s side. The aft section flew out with the wrecked lead destroyer being driven ahead of it. The companion destroyer was completely destroyed and its broken remains had been cast aside in a thousand pieces as it was hurled from the passageway.
“My Lady, what are your orders,” the battle destroyer’s Ship Mistress pressed wondering if she should take command from the venerable Grand Mistress and if she could.
“Bring us about and take us back to the other ships whose maneuver drives have been disabled,” she said wanting to rally her forces. Her star destroyer was intact but she realized that with the loss of so many ships they were now suddenly vulnerable.
As the massive ship came about more bad news befell the Karduan forces.
“My lady we have a maser contact of enemy ships,” said the second from the sensor station.
“Where?” she managed to say her jaw locked in anger.
“Contact is a dozen ships coming around the edge of the asteroid belt and closing in on our supply freighters and our disabled ships.”
“How could they do this?” the Ship Mistress exclaimed surprised as they all were by this flanking attack.
“They must have a second exit and have used the asteroid cluster’s own magnetic field to help mask their approach,” the Grand Fleet Mistress explained now knowing one of her many mistakes.
“Enemy ships include a heavy cruiser, a modern light cruiser, a heavy frigate, an auxiliary carrier, two of our destroyers, two destroyer escorts, two frigates and two sloops,” their maser operator said.
“It sounds like one of their pathetic defense fleets,” Pir-Ly commented with a sneer as her mind raced to come up with a plan of attack.
“They have no ships with a spinal cannon,” the Second said pointing out a positive.
“The human carrier is launching fighters,” the Ship Mistress said.
“Have our carrier also launch,” Pir-Ly commanded, “That should keep them busy.”
If she wanted to save anything from this disaster then he needed to buy time to get to her ships and form a defensive line.
“Should we recall our pursuit ships?” the Second inquired.
“No, they must destroy that frigate and keep it from escaping and getting them more help,” the Grand Fleet Mistress said with a scowl on her face.
When she could bring her spinal cannon to bear on the enemy’s ships then they would feel her wrath and she would feel some satisfaction.
As this was all occurring Mike had his own problems.
“Hit to our maneuver drives,” Ensign Pitt called out as the old frigate shook from an impact.
“Hit to our bender drives,” PO2 Curtis announced.
“Fusion turret two is down,” PO2 Baker added.
The last wave of missiles and hits from energy weapons were taking a toll. The Goliad’s anti-missile defenses had been weakened from the ongoing battle and the new ships chasing them were firing everything they had at the old frigate.
“How many torpedoes do we have left?” Mike asked to confirm what he already knew.
“We have two Blitzens and one standard torpedo left, sir,” she quickly answered without having to look at her controls.
Mike got up from his captain’s chair and moved over to the sensor station right next to the maser controls. There he looked not at the pursing ships but at the red star sun that they were closing on.
“Captain, direct hit on the damaged Vanguard’s engines and it is dropping out of pursuit,” Curtis said sitting next to him.
“That leaves us one DE along with three more ships closing in,” Pitt said thinking out loud.
“Cindy, focus all guns and missiles on the near destroyer escort,” Mike ordered without looking up from the screen he was staring at.
“Aye sir,” she said as the Goliad’s crew felt another hit to their aft section.
“Hit to our bender drive’s housing,” Greg Curtis said just to his right.
“Sir!” Pitts said as a flash of light overwhelmed the main view screen for a moment.
Collins looked up for a moment and then back to the screen he was working on.
“That last particle hit did it and the damaged destroyer escort has exploded!” Baker announced with a grin and a nod of satisfaction.
“That leaves the far two destroyer escorts and Vanguard that are closing in on us,” Ensign Pitt remarked.
“Yeah and they are all fresh without any damage,” Ryan commented from his station.
The bridge was quiet for moment as they contemplated their situation and its likely outcome.
“Mister Pitt, keep us ahead of them. Petty Officer Baker, continue hitting them with our particle turret and try to take out their torpedo launchers. Work together to keep them at our range as much as you can,” Mike instructed as he worked at the sensors station.
“Got a plan boss?” Curtis said in a lowered voice.
“Yeah but it probably won’t work,” he whispered back.
“Sir, the Star Destroyer is broadcasting that there was a massive explosion inside of the passageway. It seems that five or six of their ships were caught in the blast,” Ryan reported eavesdropping on the communication bands using the Karduan codes that Lt. Collins had given him.
“Should I adjust our sensors to scan in that direction?” Curtis asked anxious to see what was going on.
“No, I need them right now and what’s probably happened was we blew a nuclear mine inside of the tunnel,” Mike informed still busy at the station.
He knew that they had made the passage into the Wolf’s Den as tough as possible to penetrate. Any enemy would have to fight and bleed for every kilometer that they crossed.
“Sir, detecting missiles and torpedoes being launched from the three pursuing ships,” PO2 Curtis reported and continued, “Second firing and a third.”
“Baker, same deal as last time. Set our last standard torpedo to proximity detonation and fire at the center of their first wave,” Mike ordered.
“Aye sir, torpedo away,” she called out as their last standard torpedo streaked towards the enemy’s missile wave.
“Particle, fusion and missile turrets focus on knocking out the incoming torpedoes,” Collins instructed still working on his calculations.
“Our torpedo exploded and took out all of their first wave and some of their second,” Curtis said.
“Rotate missile pod three and fire them at the third wave of missiles. I want a remote detonation with proximity burst,” he said hoping that not only would that work but that his gauss cannons and ECM defenses could handle the rest of the second wave of missiles that got past his torpedo’s explosion.
“Captain, we’re approaching the outer limit of the star’s corona,” Pitt said hoping they wouldn’t get any closer.
“Good, one thing I’m hoping is that the Karduan missiles aren’t as good as ours and the sun will mess with their targeting,” Mike revealed.
“This is also the shortest route to the gravity well,” Curtis said it sounding like a prompt.
Collins nodded, “Yeah, there is not much left to do but run.”
“So, we run?” Pitt asked from the helm.
“Yes, but after I try one more thing,” their young captain said looking back down at the sensor screen.
His bridge crew looked to each other wondering what rabbit he was about to pull out of his hat.
Mike then looked up and over at the fire control station.
“Cindy, I’m sending you fire coordina
tes, locked them in and fire our last two torpedoes.”
“Aye sir,” PO2 Baker said and then looked back at him after she saw their new target.
At the same time, the ship shook from an energy strike from one of the pursuit ships.
“Sir, are you sure?” she asked.
“Yes, damn it, fire,” he ordered.
“Torpedoes away,” She announced firing their last two torpedoes.
Instead of the torpedoes arching back toward the Karduan warships they took a different heading. Turing towards the sun, they entered the corona and exploded but nothing seemed to happen.
Mike waited for a long moment and then slammed his hand down on the console making a large dent in the poly-metal surface.
“What just happened or didn’t happen?” Ryan inquired from his comm. station.
Ensign Pitt turned in his seat a little.
“You were trying to activate a solar flare from the sun,” he said in surprise at his captain’s idea.
“Yes, I picked a spot that looked like it was going to erupt anyway which this star does on a regular basis,” he said as the Goliad shook from another impact.
“Orders?” the pilot asked.
“Keep us along the edge, then bounce up off the star’s magnetic field and get us to the bend point best possible speed,” he said still disappointed that his idea had failed.
“Yes, sir,” Jeremy Pitt replied.
“Sir, the Karduans have launched another wave of missiles and torpedoes,” Curtis announced.
“Captain, they are gaining on us,” Pitt informed.
“Just get us to the breakaway point and we’ll slingshot ahead of them,” Collins said trying to calm them down.
They all knew they were near the end. It was a good effort and they hurt the enemy bad but they were still just one ship.
Mike moved back to his command seat and opened a channel to engineering.
“Chief, what is your status down there?” he asked.
A long moment went by before he got an answer.
“We have four dead and three wounded,” the German-accented voice said without a visual. “Maneuver drive is down by twenty-five percent and the bender drive is offline.”
“Can you get the bender drive repaired?”
“I don’t know, we’ve been working to keep the fusion engines online and haven’t had time to check the bender drive out,” Schmidty answered.
“Do your best to get them operational as we have three ships still after us and we’re running out of things to throw at them,” he said in honest truth.
“How long?” the Chief Petty Officer asked.
“We’ll be at the bend point in less than an hour,” Mike answered.
“Right, we’ll do our best,” the engineer said ending the transmission as he knew he had no time to talk.
“Sir, you were right,” Curtis exclaimed without explaining.
Mike looked over at him and frowned.
“Sorry sir, many of the enemy missiles are either exploding or failing from the star’s heat and increased radiation,” he said with a smile of relief.
“Finally, some good news,” Lt. Collins commented, “keep knocking the rest down.”
“Coming up on the breakaway,” Ensign Pitt announced feeling himself sweat inside his space suit.
“Sir, I’m getting Confederation communications traffic!” Specialist Ryan cried out.
“Maser?” Mike said.
“There are Confederation ships coming around the edge of the asteroid field,” Curtis answered.
“Number and type?”
“Reading twelve ships, the largest is a heavy cruiser Hero class followed by a modern light cruiser and a heavy frigate.”
“Hail them,” Collins said.
“Breaking away,” Pitt announced guiding the frigate from the sun’s magnetic field and gaining a bounce of acceleration in the process.
“Enemy ships are still with us but they are now out of weapons range,” PO2 Curtis said.
“How long until they make up the difference and are in range again?” Mike asked.
“Twenty-five minutes,” came the answer.
Mike looked up at the holo-map and shook his head. It would take them at least thirty minutes to get to the gravity well to make a bend and that was if their bender drives were operational.
“Sir, I’m getting a signal from the ISS Ajax,” Ryan said and added, “they want to know who we are?”
“Open a channel on main viewer,” their young captain said as he looked up at the screen.
“Aye, sir,” echoed back to him.
The screen quickly filled showing the busy looking bridge of the restored Hero class heavy cruiser, ISS Ajax. When Mike had first seen the heavy cruiser, it had been floating in two pieces having taken a spinal hit to amid-ship at the Battle of Jericho Six. Since then it had been recovered and taken back to the Wolf’s Den for repair. That was a little over year ago and he had to admit that the restored ship looked good and was a welcomed sight.
Sitting in the command chair was Commander Martha Kirkland, the Wolf’s Den second in command and the wife of Captain John Kirkland. She like her husband was of that older generation and was probably in her late seventies or early eighties but she looked much younger through anti-aging treatments and modern medicine.
She looked back at him for moment in shock and then smiled.
“Will wonders never cease!” she said with a bright and beautiful smile.
“Yes Ma’am,” he replied happy to see her.
“So, it was your frigate that caused all of this damage to the rear of the Karduan fleet?” she asked having been shocked when she came around the edge of the asteroid cluster and found that six enemy ships had all been disabled with hits to their maneuver drives. Her maser operator then discovered four other smaller Blue ships across the system that were either destroyed or badly damaged.
“Yes Commander, we are the ISS Goliad,” he said his bridge crew sitting up a little straighter and smiling as he said it.
“Mike, I think you stole part of my job,” she said and explained, “My task force is the flanking attack to this operation.”
“So, the Wolf Squadron is still here?” he inquired hoping it was true.
“Yes, the enemy is about to find that out when the Half Moon arrives along with the rest of the squadron.”
“I had thought they had already left for the front,” he said.
“Well, I see you still have three ships on your tail, could you use some help?” she asked glancing over to her floating holo-map.
“Yes, Ma’am, but I don’t think you’d be able to get here in time,” he said knowing that they were more than an hour away from the task force.
“The light cruiser, Patton might be able to get to you in time,” she said knowing the modern ship was designed for high impulse speeds.
“Ma’am, you’re going need Commander Hildebrandt and the Patton if you’re going up against that star destroyer,” Mike commented.
“Non-sense, this is an upgraded heavy cruiser,” she remarked and then glance over to her fire control officer and simply nodded.
The Ajax had been equipped during its year-long rebuild with a Type-C spinal mounted particle cannon. Now the improved heavy cruiser fired its massive cannon and sent a wave of lethal energy at an asteroid near the line of immobile Karduan ships.
At the same time, the star destroyer Half Moon came out of the Wolf’s Den’s passageway and turned towards the Karduan line. Behind the immense ship came a parade of Confederation controlled destroyers and destroyer escorts.
Mike could hear Commander Kirkland order her comm. officer to tell the Karduan ships to surrender or be destroyed.
“Sir, the enemy star destroyer is breaking from the formation and is making a run towards the gravity well,” PO2 Curtis broke in.
Collins looked at the holo-map and at the forming battle situation. It was clear that the Grand Mistress’s ship was abandoning its position a
nd was leaving her other ships to either surrender or be destroyed. She was at the far end of the battle line and was furthest from the approaching flanking force.
Given her advantage of distance, it was doubtful that any of the large ships from the Task Force or from the Confederation main body would be able to catch her. The small faster ships could eventually catch up to her and harass the mighty ship but they lacked the firepower to stop her.
“Ma’am, I’ll bend out when we reach the well, so don’t worry about us. Just take care of that star destroyer,” he said not wanting the Patton or any other ship to try and run the gambit around the star destroyer to get to him. The huge enemy ship was taking the shortest route to the gravity well. If the Patton took a longer route it would still arrive too late to help the Goliad.
“Lt. Collins,” she started and then nodded, “Good luck, God’s speed and get clear as soon as possible.”
“Aye Ma’am,” he replied.
The Goliad’s comm. channel closed and the main viewer once more showed a rearview image of the three Karduan pursuit ships.
“Will we be able to bend?” Greg Curtis asked.
Mike remained silent to his question.
“Those ships aren’t just coming after us now,” Ensign Pitt commented.
“No, they are trying to escape and save themselves,” Cindy Baker added.
“And we are the only thing in their way,” Ryan said joining the conversation as their young captain sat and pondered his next move.
“How soon until they are back in our particle turret’s range?” Collins asked breaking his silence.
“Ten minutes but they will probably start firing their torpedoes and missiles in five,” PO2 Baker informed.
“Weapons status?”
“Our particle turret and one fusion turret are fully functional. We still have one missile turret but we are down to our last thirty-two missiles. Three gauss cannons are also still operational,” she replied.
Mike frowned and let out a soft breath. Sometimes it is just smart to run and live to fight another day. Thank you, Tacitus, he thought, remembering the Greek historian’s quote.
Reaching down he hit the sensor pad that opened the direct channel to engineering.
Wolves at the Gate Page 37
