Scout Force

by Rodney Smith

  “Baron N’Gana is not happy that his son has not returned from his adventure. It is only my reputation for success that kept me from sharing the fate of your associate on the floor. He failed me. He chose the Shadow Warriors that accompanied Baron N’Gana’s son. I suggest you not fail me.”

  “The cargo carrier ship T’Onna waited three days and M’Talli’s ship never appeared. Our drones have crossed the frontier and verified that his ship was destroyed as was the human courier shuttle. We only found small debris from the stern and engine section of M’talli’s ship. The lack of debris from the bow of the ship and the trace of metal from the human ship makes me suspect that the humans may have captured M’Talli and the human couriers. If not, they at least have the bridge and crew section of our ship and all the information it contained.”

  “This challenge cannot be allowed to go unanswered. Shadow Petty Commander L’Alla, you will organize an expedition to the human world in the system adjacent to where M’Talli’s ship was taken. The human traitors have a facility on the major continent in the southern hemisphere where they have stored a back-up copy of the final data segment. M’Talli was killed attempting to acquire it. Assemble a sufficient force to enter the facility, kill all you encounter, find the data, and return to me with it.”

  “Shadow Petty Commander G’Sanu, you will take command of one of our new torpedo ships, precede L’Alla’s attack force, conduct a thorough surveillance of the frontier region near the human world, and destroy any human combatants that may be in the sector. Are there any questions?”

  The two assumed an even stiffer position of attention, saluted, and answered in unison, “No, Shadow Leader.”

  The Shadow Leader stepped over the body on his way out the door, “Do not fail me, Petty Commanders. Return with the data or not at all. But first, send someone in to clean up this mess.”

  * * * * *

  The Vigilant’s training cruise went well. The crew picked up on the goals of the cruise and quickly improved their performance at all stations. The helmsmen put the simulator drills into practice by conducting a series of zero-G landings on Armstrong’s smallest moon. They weren’t as smooth as Kelly would have liked, but they were greatly improved over the last patrol.

  When they returned to base, they were back on patrol status. The next patrol would be back to the Scutum sector. Signals indicative of flight by the K’Rang drone ships were being picked up in that area and HQ wanted them to go and see what they could find. They would be held at the base only until the new reverse-engineered K’Rang sensor system could be fitted onto the Vigilant.

  The yard crew and Chiefs Miller and Blankenship put the system in and tested it in only three days. They would have to calibrate it enroute to their patrol sector, but it was in and operating nominally. It should give them an edge.

  Kelly had time to see Candy before they shipped out. He found out that she had accepted the job at the Base JAG office and she would be in it by the time he returned from patrol.

  On the morning they were scheduled to lift ship, Kelly had messages from his folks and from LT Bell, wishing him well on his patrol. There was a message from Angie that the Bolivar had been diverted to patrol near the border for a few more weeks. They would not be at Armstrong until much later. Kelly thought this was lucky, because he would have been away on patrol when they arrived. He did not know how long this patrol would be, but most likely they would be back in time for the Bolivar’s port call. He really wanted to see his old squadron mates. There was a message from Tammy, telling more of her experiences transitioning to the new shuttle. The video of her message showed her in her flight suit with the zipper provocatively down to her navel.

  Kelly replied to all and told them he expected to be back in about a month, but he probably would not be able to receive or send messages while he was gone.

  Kelly made his ship inspection, noticing some minor deficiencies in the galley that were corrected immediately, but the rest of the ship was ready for patrol. He moved back to the bridge to put his own position in order.

  Kelly looked around the bridge. The helm and navigator positions were manned. The engineering sensor and weapons positions were manned by senior petty officers. There was a quiet hum of efficiency; the bridge crew was now a coherent team. The captain and Chief Watson were conferring in the conference room. He expected them to finish just before lift off.

  True to his prediction, the captain and the chief came out just before lift off. They made a quick inspection, gave the necessary orders and lifted off the planet. The Vigilant quickly sped out of the system and went into FTL mode. In a few short days, they arrived near the Scutum sector. They stopped in the dark space outside the sector and calibrated the new sensor system, then scanned the entire sector as they approached, and found nothing out of the ordinary.

  The Fleet intel reports on the strange signals showed them originating across the frontier, moving into the Scutum sector, and returning. The distance to the nearest listening posts was too far for an accurate location. They would have to patrol the region and hope they got lucky.

  The first five days were uneventful. They drifted in the sector in close proximity with several large asteroids. The passive sensors were operating at maximum sensitivity. Nothing out of the ordinary appeared.

  On the sixth day a K’Rang ship appeared, dropping out of FTL just a few thousand kilometers from the frontier. Chief B focused every sensor on that ship. The new K’Rang-style sensor gave an incredibly high-resolution image of the K’Rang ship. The ship was about twice the length of the Vigilant and half again as wide.

  The sensor feed to Kelly’s station showed a smaller ship, about twice the size of a fighter, detach from the larger K’Rang ship and move toward the frontier. It quickly penetrated the frontier and made a run through the center of the Scutum Sector. It was incredibly fast, accelerating quickly to just below FTL speed. Kelly couldn’t figure out how they could get such power out of such a small ship.

  “Petty Officer, can you get any kind of a reading on the engine in that thing?”

  “The petty officer spoke into his intercom and said, “Sir, Chief Blankenship will be here shortly to answer your question.”

  The captain looked over at him and said, “It is fast, isn’t it?”

  “Yes, sir. I’m trying to think what they could be using to get speed like that out of such a small vehicle. How restrictive are our orders, sir? Could we capture this thing?”

  “I’ll let you read the orders again, but I don’t see that flexibility in them. I read them as we are to observe only, unless GR citizens or property are endangered.”

  Kelly rolled his eyes. “Got it, sir, no action unless they shoot first.”

  The K’Rang ship continued its high speed run through the Scutum sector. Kelly wondered if it was intentionally showing off, hoping to draw a GR Fleet reaction. Kelly saw the wisdom in following their orders to the letter. It was probably equipped with a self-destruct mechanism and they could gain more information from observing the ship secretly than analyzing a debris cloud.

  Chief Blankenship appeared. She said, “Sir, you asked about the engine. As best we can determine it is an extremely efficient reaction engine with an unshielded gravity well FTL drive. It is running at about 98 percent efficiency. They seem to be injecting something into the exhaust stream to give them that much thrust. We’re trying to see what that might be. We are tracking the flight path. If we can run through the flight path later, we might be able to use the sniffers to figure out what it is.”

  The captain said, “Good enough, Chief. Once this thing clears out, we’ll do just that.”

  Chief B continued, “One other thing, sir, as sharp as that ship is turning, there isn’t a living being on board. Nothing human or K’Rang could survive those G-forces.”

  “Thanks, Chief, that's all for now.”

  Chief B went back to the sensor section.

  The ship turned back toward the Vigilant’s position and slowed
down. It began a series of slow, wide right and left turns making a serpentine path across space. As the ship got closer, the turns got tighter and tighter. An itchy feeling came over Kelly.

  “Captain, I think it's homing in on us. That thing is going to come right at us if it keeps going as it is.”

  “Exec, I think you're right. Helm, prepare to lift us out of here on a course dead away from that ship. If it gets within 10,000 km of us, execute. Gunnery, don’t move the turrets at this time, but prepare to fire on the ship if it gets within 9,000 km.”

  Helm and weapons answered aye aye.

  Kelly watched the ship continue to close the range and home in on the Vigilant, wondering what signature was giving them away to the drone.

  The captain looked up from his terminal and said, “Helm, we’re not waiting. Come to course 175, mark 0 and get us out of here now. Prepare to go to FTL if I call for it. Gunnery, slew your turrets as we move off.”

  The helmsman acknowledged the order and pulled the ship quickly out of the asteroid field. The K’Rang ship oriented on the Vigilant and sped up. The distance closed slightly until the Vigilant picked up speed and then the distance remained constant. As the K’Rang ship increased speed, so did the Vigilant. The captain ordered the helmsman to stay outside of 10,000 km distance from the K’Rang ship. It required the helmsman to keep accelerating to stay ahead of the K’Rang ship. Their speed was approaching FTL.

  “Helm take us to power 2 and steer us away from the frontier. Exec, let’s see what kind of legs this thing has. If we leave him behind, we’ll slow down some and lead him away from the frontier.”

  The helm smoothly accelerated the Vigilant to power 2. The K’Rang ship fell behind. The helmsman slowed the ship down until they were just maintaining the distance from the K’Rang ship. They calculated the top speed of the ship to be power 1.6, or at least that was all it was currently showing.

  Kelly said, “Gunnery, keep targeting that ship. It may be faster than it is letting on. Let’s keep our guard up.”

  The chase kept up for the better part of that day, with no signs of the K’Rang ship breaking off. The captain called Kelly and the section chiefs into his ready room. “All right, what are we up against? I want to hear your opinions.”

  Chief Blankenship spoke first. “When we went into FTL the reaction engine was replaced by a primitive FTL engine. We are seeing a standard FTL signature. Our assessment is that it’s a little faster than it’s showing, but probably less than power 2.”

  Chief Miller spoke next. “I agree with Chief Blankenship. The engine signature shows it to be a single coil system. That’s about the only FTL engine that can fit in a ship that size.”

  Chief Pennypacker said, “I’ve looked at the sensor readings. The ship is unarmored. It has minor navigational shields. I can cut it up into little ship bits in no time.”

  Chief Billings said, “All ship systems are at 100 percent. The bridge crew is ready for any action you choose, Captain.”

  Chief Watson was next. “I’ve been looking at the active scans we’ve made on this ship since its been chasing us. I can’t figure out what it is. It doesn’t appear to be a scout drone. If it is, it shouldn’t be chasing us. It should be running the other way. It's not fast enough or armored enough to be a combat drone. I don’t like the way it is chasing us away from the frontier. I recommend we kick this K’Rang piece of crud in the butt and get back to the frontier.”

  It was Kelly’s turn. “I agree with Chief Watson on not liking the way it seems to be chasing us away from the frontier. Why don’t we increase speed to high FTL, leave this guy in our dust and use the long-range sensors to see what he does. It might not be a bad idea to move away and circle around behind him. Let’s get behind him, between him and the frontier.”

  “I like that idea, Exec. Let’s see what he does when he loses us. Let’s all get back to our stations.”

  Orders were given to the helm to increase speed to power 4. The Vigilant quickly pulled away from the K’Rang ship. As the distance increased to 250,000 km, the K’Rang ship slowed, halted, and turned back toward the frontier. The Vigilant made a wide turn around the K’Rang ship, keeping it at least 300,000 km away.

  The captain ordered a max speed run back to the Scutum sector. In two hours they were at the fringes of sensor range of the sector. They slowed to sub-FTL and scanned ahead for any anomalies. The K’Rang ship that had launched the probe had moved away from the frontier, but was still in range of the Vigilant’s sensors. The Vigilant moved in slowly.

  A second, larger ship appeared at the edges of the sensor range. It moved closer to the frontier. The captain ordered the Vigilant to dead stop. It floated free in space.

  LCDR Timmons said, “Let’s see what’s going on here. We’ll wait until we have a better picture on this second ship before we move closer. Chief B, get me all you can as soon as you can on this second ship.”

  Kelly and Timmons watched their monitors as the sensor crew resolved details on the second ship. It appeared to be about three times the size of the earlier K’Rang ship. It looked to be no more than a medium size interstellar freighter. It moved up to the other K’Rang ship. The sensor crew determined that the second ship was a lighter carrier. It was designed for moving cargo from space to a planet’s surface on a primitive planet without an orbital transfer point. They were usually fitted with four to six cargo lighters that would carry the cargo from the ship to the ground. The sensor section estimated that the cargo lighters would be about the same size as the Vigilant, or just a little larger, for a ship the size of the K’Rang lighter carrier.

  Both K’Rang ships moved toward and through the frontier and proceeded directly to the 6664 system.

  The captain ordered the Vigilant to proceed to the 6664 system and the crew to battle stations. He had a message sent to Fleet requesting reinforcements and containing all the details of the last two days.

  The K’Rang ships were closer to the system than the Vigilant and arrived first. The lighter carrier launched four lighters down to the surface. The lighter carrier and the other ship used pulse cannons to soften up the planetary defenses. The New Alexandria authorities issued a general distress call, which was replaced by an invasion emergency call. The Vigilant increased speed.

  “The captain keyed up the internal speakers. “This is the captain. We are moving to engage the K’Rang force attacking New Alexandria. I plan to attack the lighter carrier first to give the lighters no escape route. Once we have dispatched the lighter carrier, we will take out the other ship, then go down into the atmosphere to take out the lighters. We will leave any enemy soldiers for the New Alexandria defense forces to deal with.”

  “Exec, contact the New Alexandria authorities and inform them we are coming to their assistance. Just in case our K’Rang friends over there are listening in, tell them that we have a reinforcement fleet coming in behind us.”

  “Aye aye, Captain.”

  Kelly brought up the comms suite on his monitor, contacted the Defense Force HQ of New Alexandria and informed them they were coming to their aid. The general in command gave him a status report on the battle on the surface. The K’Rang had landed about a battalion of troops near a light industrial compound in the southern hemisphere. New Alexandria security forces in the vicinity were completely overwhelmed. Forces were moving into the sector and preparing to counterattack. Kelly told him that the lighters would have no place to return to shortly.

  The captain increased speed to just below FTL to close the distance more quickly. He oriented their approach to bring them in on the rear of both ships. His plan was to take out both ship’s engines on the first pass and then come back and take them both out in turn.

  As they approached, the turret gunners fired, taking out the K’Rang ships’ engines. Once the engines were disabled, they switched their aim to destroy the pulse cannons. They were less successful on the cannons than they were on the engines. A couple of cannons were still in service and a few puls
es impacted on the Vigilant’s armor and shields with no damage.

  On the second pass, the Vigilant came in above the lighter carrier, using the forward guns and the turrets to maximum effect. As they blew by the two K’Rang ships, the lighter carrier was displaying secondary explosions and venting atmosphere into space. The second ship launched another drone as they passed. It locked onto the Vigilant and vectored in on a tail-chase collision course and accelerated. Kelly switched his monitor to rear view and watched as the turrets and rear-mounted guns made short work of the drone. The size of the explosion as it disintegrated gave an indication of its true purpose. It was a space torpedo.

  The K’Rang lighter carrier exploded into a tremendous fireball, engulfing and consuming both K’Rang ships as the Vigilant turned back for a third run. Sensors informed the bridge that the K’Rang lighter carrier used its self-destruct mechanism. Both K’Rang ships were completely vaporized.

  The captain took the Vigilant down into the atmosphere to deal with the lighters on the surface. Kelly called the New Alexandria Defense HQ to get the exact location and status of the invading force. The general came back on personally and said that the K’Rang forces were loading back on the lighters and attempting to escape back into space. New Alexandrian fighters had made short work of two of the lighters, one had been destroyed on the ground, but one was escaping beyond the maximum altitude of their atmospheric fighters. Their exoatmospheric fighters were not in range to close with the lighter. The Vigilant turned to pursue. As the two ships reached space, Chief B informed the bridge that the original K’Rang drone had entered the Scutum sector at power 2.

  The drone picked up the Vigilant and turned onto a collision course at just under power 2. The captain turned the Vigilant toward the lighter, with the drone closing fast. At the last minute he increased speed to power 2, closely passed the lighter, and accelerated to power 3 FTL. The drone lost track on the Vigilant and locked onto the lighter. The long-range sensors recorded the destruction of the last K’Rang lighter.