by D. J. Holmes
“Yes sir,” the COM officer replied, “sending the message now.”
As the second Chinese missile salvo approached, it became impossible to see what the Chinese destroyer was doing as space around the two British ships was filled with flak explosions, plasma bolts, AM missiles and exploding Chinese missiles. When the sensor feeds cleared both Ghost and Raptor continued on, having shrugged off the Chinese missiles. Lightfoot could also see on the visual display that small escape pods were launching from the damaged destroyer.
“Tactical,” Lightfoot ordered, “keep your missiles locked onto that ship but hold fire. If there is any sign of it turning to bring any weapons to bear on us fire immediately. As soon as we get into plasma range take it out. Then put us back into stealth. We are now the hunted.”
Chapter 26 – Behind Enemy Lines
The Void War saw the first real use of warships as raiders operating behind enemy lines for long periods of time. This had been a tactic perfected by the wet navies of Earth centuries before but many of the skills had to be relearnt.
-Excerpt from Empire Rising, 3002 AD
16th May 2465 AD, HMS Raptor, New Shanghai
James felt more exhausted than he ever had before in his life. The closest he had come to how he currently felt had been when he had taken Drake through the V17 system. There he had to dodge a number of Chinese picket ships while trying to get a good scan of the planet. New Shanghai was turning out to be an entirely different kettle of fish. For the last five hours Ghost and Raptor had been slowly making their way deeper and deeper into the system. Only an hour ago they had actually managed to pass the line marking the system’s mass shadow.
The Chinese System Commander had filled the exit of the shift passage from the Wi system with small patrol craft. After finishing off the destroyer, Lightfoot had taken them back into stealth and they had slowly made their way into the system. Every time they had detected a Chinese warship they had been forced to try and sneak around them. In Drake it would have been much easier but, even though the Churchill class of destroyer had impressive stealth systems, it was much harder to hide a fully equipped warship.
As if things couldn’t have gotten any worse, three hours after they had defeated the Chinese destroyer another force had jumped into the system behind them. They must have been reinforcements sent to Wi that had returned once they learnt that Ghost and Raptor had already left. As soon as they had jumped into the system, they had spread out and were now slowly making their way into the system. All their active scanners were operating at full capacity as they sought to locate the two British ships.
The Chinese Commander was definitely a canny one. Even though he must have known Ghost and Raptor were trying to sneak further into the system, he hadn’t ordered his outer system pickets to go to active scanning. Instead they had remained quiet and undetectable unless the British ships got close to them. That meant that James and Lightfoot had to be prepared to come under fire at any second.
Further into the system things were a little different. Around the planet the System Commander had two light cruisers in orbit to lend weight to the battlestations that were on full alert. Slightly further out was the main Chinese force. It consisted of a heavy cruiser, two more light cruisers and three destroyers. They were slowly heading away from the inhabited planet towards the shift passage back to Wi. The Chinese Commander was clearly waiting for the British ships to trip over one of his outer pickets and then he would pounce with his larger force. Taking the ships further into the system was like walking through a field of landmines. Worse, it was like walking through a field of landmines with an enemy force waiting for you to reach the other side while another force came along behind, forcing you to keep going. James was not enjoying the experience.
The last twelve hours had reminded James of the accounts he had read from submarine commanders during World War Two. Both the American and German commanders who had tried to sneak up on enemy convoys had had to endure hours of slowly overhauling their targets before they could attack. All the while surface patrol boats had been constantly searching for them, just waiting for a chance to blow them out of the water. The submariners often hadn’t even known they had been detected until it was too late. So far Lightfoot had proven himself to have nerves of steel as he had led them onwards. James, on the other hand, was beginning to struggle. He didn’t know how Lightfoot was doing it. He was beginning to feel himself fray around the edges. Knowing he needed to do something before his subordinates began to see past the confident front he had been projecting, he decided to retire to his quarters. Having spent the last fourteen hours on the bridge he needed to at least try and get some sleep.
When a COM channel on his command chair beeped, he almost jumped. Recovering quickly, he hit the accept button to bring up Lightfoot’s face. The Captain of Ghost looked tired but his voice was still full of confidence and James could feel himself drawing strength from Lightfoot as he spoke. “Still awake Captain, I thought you would have retired for a nap by now? I guess you don’t want to miss any of the action. This is definitely going to make a great story when we get back to Earth.”
“Certainly sir,” was all James could manage. He wasn’t sure if Lightfoot was joking for the sake of his subordinates or if he really was enjoying himself.
“I think I’ve come up with a plan,” Lightfoot continued. “We’ll be lucky to make it out of here, never mind actually causing any damage so we need to adapt. You haven’t been briefed on this but RSNI had received some intel that the next convoy going into the Void would be passing through New Shanghai in about four days. It was a secondary target for us to go after if we got a chance. The intel suggested that the convoy would be lightly guarded until it got to New Shanghai. That might be why there are so many more smaller ships in the system than we were expecting, some may be waiting for the convoy. Our best chance of intercepting the convoy is if we hit them here.”
As James looked at his personal holo display an image of the shift passage connecting New Shanghai to Paracel appeared. The Paracel system didn’t contain anything of importance but it did lead to the Anyang system which was as heavily developed as New Shanghai and it in turn led on through Chinese space to the Beta system and then back to Earth. The shift passage between New Shanghai and Paracel was a relatively straight one but it did have two very tight kinks in it. Ordinarily, it was deemed impossible to ambush a fleet as it travelled through shift space. Even though the ships had to make regular stops to realign when the shift passage twisted and turned the passages were so large it was impossible to predict accurately enough to plan an ambush where a ship might make its stop.
However, throughout known space there was five shift passages where it had been deemed just such an ambush was possible – at least by the RSN tactical planners. One of them was between New Shanghai and Paracel. There were two very severe turns in the shift passage that were also very narrow. Any ship hoping to pass through them in a timely fashion would have to exit shift space in a fairly small area of space. Provided the ships didn’t suspect they would be ambushed and stuck to the least time route through the passage, the point at which they would come out of shift space was easily predictable.
As James studied the image Lightfoot continued, “This will only work, however, if we can convince the Chinese Commander of the system defenses here that we have gone somewhere else. If he suspects we are trying to ambush the convoy, all he’ll have to do is send his ships to the twist in the shift passage and he’ll have ambushed us.
“If we’re going to convince him we’re somewhere else we will have to be somewhere else, at least one of us will be. But first we need to get the Chinese Commander’s attention. By now he’ll have received a report from those ships that came into the system behind us on the damage we caused at Wi. Hopefully, we can give him some more incentive stop us attacking any other unprotected systems. Here are a couple of targets I’ve selected.”
On his holo display James watched the image shift
to show the New Shanghai system again. A series of dots appeared with scrolling text beside each one along with an ETA. As James looked closely, he could see they were all minor targets. Some small mining facilities and a freighter resupply hub, for freighters that wanted to pass through the system without going into the inner system. Their worth wasn’t what made them important. Combined, their destruction would only cause a small headache to even a poorer Politburo member. Their importance was in where they led when the dots were joined. They didn’t form a straight line but to anyone observing all the dots, it was clear that the British destroyers would be heading towards the Fujian passage. Theoretically the Fujian passage led all the way back to the Damang system, though it would take over a month to do so. Along the way it passed through four other Chinese systems. None had a habitable planet and so were poorly developed yet combined, they still had received a sizable amount of investment from the Chinese government. Given all the destruction Ghost and Raptor had dished out at Wi, no sane Chinese Commander would want the two British destroyers loose among the four unprotected systems.
“One of us is going down the Fujian passage to draw the Chinese off then?” James asked.
Nodding, Lightfoot fleshed out the details, “that’s the plan. The greater risk will fall on the ship that does so I’ll be taking Ghost. First, we’ll hit all the targets I’ve sent you here in New Shanghai to convince the enemy we’re working as a single unit. When I make the jump to Fujian, you will go to stealth and wait for whatever Chinese ships are sent after us to make the jump. Then you can double back and head for the ambush site. As soon as I get to Fujian I’ll begin stirring up a right hornets’ nest. Hopefully in all the confusion it’ll take the pursuing Chinese ships a while to figure out Raptor isn’t there.
“If they do figure it out, things might get a bit hairy for you but it’s two days to Fujian system along the shift passage. That’ll give you at least four days to sneak out of New Shanghai and get to the ambush site before any message is sent back informing the Chinese Commander Raptor isn’t at Fujian. The convoy is expected in four to five days, so, unless it is late you should be there before the Chinese have a chance to send any ships after you.
“Once it seems like there’s no point hanging around the Fujian system I’ll either jump on up the Fujian passage to draw as many ships away from you as possible or I’ll try and sneak past them and back to New Shanghai. I’m sending you some coordinates for the Damang system. We’ll meet back there when all this is done. Is there anything you want to add to the plan?”
James considered it for a moment. Obviously Lightfoot had been thinking it through for the last twelve hours. There was one flaw in his plan and James proceeded to point it out. “Wouldn’t it be better if you were to take Ghost to attack the convoy? Even lightly defended the convoy will have some sort of escort. You have the last penetrator missile. If there is anything larger than a frigate escorting the convoy, you would need it to destroy the ship quickly before the rest of the convoy had a chance to jump away.”
“You’re right, it will be needed,” Lightfoot began, “but it won’t be on board Ghost. We’re going to dock after we hit the last target here in New Shanghai and I’ll be transferring it along with several other missiles over to you. We’re both running low on missiles but, if you’re going to take out as many of the convoy freighters as possible, you’ll need more than I will to harass Fujian. I’ll be giving you everything I can spare. Including the penetrator missile.”
“But sir,” James began to protest. Ghost was just as likely to need those missiles if she was going to draw half the Chinese fleet in this system with her to Fujian.
Lightfoot held up his hands to stop him saying anymore. “Listen James, I am the Senior Commander. The responsibility of making the command decisions falls on me. I’m not sending you to the Fujian system low on missiles with an angry Chinese fleet on your tail. I can, however, send myself. That will be the end of it. I want you to take the plan and run it over with your senior Lieutenants. See if there is anything I have missed. Then begin to plan for your ambush. I’ll coordinate with your navigation officer. It’ll be another six hours before we reach our first in system target.”
“Aye sir,” James said as he tried to hide his frustration at Lightfoot.
“Gupta, Romanov,” James called over the two Lieutenants who were both on the bridge. “I want you both to go to my private office and begin to review a plan Captain Lightfoot has sent over. I’m going to retire for a nap and I’ll join you presently.”
“Sub Lieutenant Jackson, you have the bridge,” James called as he followed the two Lieutenants out.
*
After his three hour nap James felt somewhat refreshed. The briefing with Gupta and Romanov had been disappointing. They had reviewed Lightfoot’s plan and made a few minor suggestions, though they hadn’t been able to give James any other viable alternatives. Splitting up was the best chance they had to cause the Chinese some serious damage. If both ships went up the Fujian passage, they would cause a lot of havoc but they would eventually be trapped. It was a much shorter route to go to the Damang system via Wi. Once the Chinese Commander was sure the British ships intended to go all the way up the Fujian passage, he could dispatch a blocking force to Damang via Wi. They could then travel down the other end of the Fujian passage and prevent Ghost and Raptor from doing too much damage. They would also likely trap the two ships and destroy them. The only other option was to turn around and run back to Damang via Wi now. Yet even that was all but impossible with the second Chinese squadron blocking their retreat.
After spending a couple of hours with both Lieutenants, James had come to agree with their conclusions. The best way forward was to split up and draw the Chinese ships into a wild goose chase. Resigned to the proposed course of action James also had to accept the fact he wasn’t going to change Lightfoot’s mind about which ship to send to ambush the Chinese convoy.
Instead he was back on the bridge preparing to attack the first target that would lead them to the Fujian passage. Both James and Lightfoot knew that as soon as they showed themselves the Chinese Commander would try to quickly close the net around them. Their attack would have to be swift.
As soon as they came into range of the asteroid mining facility both Raptor and Ghost opened up with their plasma cannons. Their first targets were the two freighters approaching the facility. If they could be destroyed before they could change their acceleration profile, it would take an hour or two for the electromagnetic radiation from the attack to be detected by the Chinese warships.
Someone on board one of the freighters must have been awake though, for as soon as Raptor’s stealth field came down when she opened fire, the freighter began to accelerate wildly. To anyone in the system watching their gravimetric scanners it would be a large flashing beacon indicating that something was up. The acceleration only lasted a couple of seconds before three plasma bolts cut through the freighter, causing it to explode. The second one disappeared without ever even trying to evade. Even as another volley of plasma bolts drilled into the station, two Chinese picket ships that had been in close proximity to station powered up out of stealth and both began to accelerate towards where the station had been. Further away, both the squadron that had been following them into the system and the larger squadron waiting for them altered course and began to accelerate towards the station.
Soon the space around the station was filled with radar beams as every picket ship in the vicinity began to search for the destroyers. There was alarm on the bridge of both British ships as the amount of radar energy hitting them began to rise towards levels their absorbing tech could no longer handle. As they moved further and further away though the strength began to decrease. Eventually Lightfoot ordered a course change and once again both ships slipped back into the darkness of space.
James remained on the bridge for another half hour and then retired to his quarters, giving Gupta the watch. Five more times he returned to
the bridge to watch target after target being hit. Three of the targets were destroyed without giving any immediate warning. He had been able to watch the Chinese’ delayed response as the heat and light radiation from the explosions had made their way across the system. Twice more ships had managed to radically alter their acceleration profile, alerting the Chinese that they were under attack. Each time Lightfoot had managed to steer them around the net that kept threatening to close in on them. Two hours before they entered range of their last target, the two destroyers had closed with each other and, slowly and carefully, transferred ten missiles from Ghost to Raptor. It was a procedure every cadet at the naval academy had to train for but rarely was it actually ever carried out outside the simulators. Everyone had, therefore, been on their toes but thankfully, it had been carried off without a hitch.
After the last target had been hit, the whole system had suddenly come alive as if a loud siren had gone off. Every warship had boosted to its full acceleration profile. It was now obvious where the British ships were going. The first six targets had been selected to make it look like the British ships were either trying to work their way around to the Paracel passage or to get to a better point from which to launch an attack on the inner system. The last target had given their real objective away, just as it had been chosen to do. Now every Chinese ship was racing to get to the Fujian passage before the British ships could make it there themselves. As a result, and also a part of the plan, Ghost and Raptor had been forced to drop all pretense at remaining hidden and boost for the system’s mass shadow and the opportunity to jump to Fujian.
