Interloper (The Askirti Chronicles Book 1)

by Danny Brown

  ##

  Tabitha was wide awake and taking in what she was seeing happen. The Colt obviously had spotted the ambush and leaped forward to do her job, which was to protect the Nemesis at any cost. A cost she could now tell the little destroyer paid in full.

  Dear God, she thought as she closed her eyes. This was a dumb fly-by to show off our new ship!

  Active sensors from several of the nearby ships went through the flag bridge, which was still fully operational. They had no control over the ship, but Tabitha was thankful they could at least influence the outcome of this conflict.

  “This is Commodore Summers, pursue ships marked as ‘enemy’ and engage with extreme prejudice!”

  With their battle network finally involved, the ships could fight as one. It meant better point defense and more coordinated attacks. While the flag bridge set the priorities, the ship’s closest to each target networked independently to figure out how best to deal with a target. The distribution of the workload took out the issue of waiting for the slow speed of light across vast distances.

  Light, while fast was slow in interstellar terms. Ships in a theater of battle could be light-seconds apart or even light minutes from help. Distances like this made for unacceptable for command and control when fractions of seconds could count. Therefore, the system was tiered, with flag staff setting targeting priorities then coordinating those priorities with their fleet. The individual ships' captains could override this if circumstances merited.

  The enemy was on a fast burn away from them, having hide behind a small moon near the Gate.

  Somebody noticed them. Somebody allowed this to happen.

  It was then she saw that two of the enemy light cruisers went up in a spectacular ball of glowing light, however brief. They were taken out by the joint heavy lasers of over half her fleet while the Nemesis just sat there, neutered.

  Suddenly, one of the unknown heavy cruisers blew up! They could make short work of the enemy at this pace.

  The remaining ships turned around and went to full military power. Three heavy cruisers and four light cruisers can pack a punch. And they were charging them.

  “All ships! Evasive maneuvers!”

  The enemy launched full salvos of missiles at them while they fired their heavy lasers which proved to be much older and weaker.

  “Target their lasers before they chew up too much of my shiny fleet! Prioritize their railguns after that,” commanded Tabitha.

  The smart battle AI of the Nemesis then split up the firepower of the fleet to target only the heavy lasers on the enemy ships. Once by one, their lasers fell silent, then their railguns.

  Then one by one, they all exploded. The missiles were quickly taken care of by point defense and the many, many Smitz drones deployed. The Federation ships railguns and lasers each, in unison, targeted each ship and fired with spectacular results, ending this battle rather quickly.

  ##

  “Sir, the SARs have made contact in the Colt.”

  The SARs, or Search And Rescue, were a vital part of the fleet. Their only target was the now dead Colt. The sensor feeds, all available from the flag bridge, showed only weak power readings coming from within.

  The heavy cruiser WFS Victory positioned itself right on top of the Colt, now careening out of control as the remnants of the ancient ship spun uncontrollably in the void. Engineers and rescue teams were pouring out of the cruiser and towards the wreck, which lay only kilometers from the Victory.

  The imagery of the damage brought silence to the flag bridge. The aft section was missing, having been blown completely off. There was no way anyone survived back there. The rest of the ship looked reasonably intact, and they hoped to start safely breaching it to rescue the survivors. The ship itself was a total loss. There would be no fixing this relic from a bygone era.

  Tabitha felt guilty for wanting certain ones to survive. She felt the value of human life, but she wanted the captain and his XO to have survived. Without their quick thinking, without their quick actions, this battle may have been a total loss. They had been caught flat-footed.

  ##

  The WFS Victory had taken the bulk of the Colt survivors, of which there were only one hundred and thirty-two, and half of those were seriously injured. The wounded ended up being distributed among the fleet to relieve the pressure on the medical staff on Victory, while the rest waited for reassignment. Most of the crew was dead, and half of those left were not fit for active duty.

  Jeri sat in the captain’s ready room, his old ready room, across from a man he knew well.

  “Paul, it is good to see you,” Jeri said to his former XO.

  “And likewise, though I would have preferred different circumstances,” responded Captain Paul Tillman.

  “What a mess,” his former captain said as he sipped the fine whiskey. “A lot of good people died today.”

  “A lot more would have had you not acted so quickly! Jeri, I know the timing sucks for chit-chat, but something tipped you off. I think looking at what happened. We need to debrief.”

  “You’re not wrong,” he took another sip. “My ship, as you know, belongs in a museum!”

  They both snickered. Jeri enjoyed Paul’s company, always had. When he found out, he would lose his command he thought it was the only saving grace that an outstanding officer like his XO and good friend would get the job.

  “I tell you what. I’ll fill you in on the rest if you tell me how you got out of ‘the reception.'”

  Paul winced. “I faked an excuse.”

  Jeri’s eyebrow went up.

  “I….heard things….about Yusif, I didn’t want any part of it. I faked an illness.”

  Jeri busted out laughing. “You did that without getting called into the principal’s office?” He laughed some more.

  “Well, yeah! That was some messed up stuff too, what he tried to do to your XO. Unbelievable the man was wearing the uniform.”

  “Yeah,” De Vitis said grimly. “But he did pay the price.”

  They both held up their glasses and took another sip.

  He filled his friend in on his rogue engineer’s project to improve their sensors.

  ##

  “And so you took apart one of your new probes and had it bolted to the ship?” asked Tabitha, not at all annoyed, just curious.

  “My chief engineer was a bit of a maverick at times. It was done without my knowledge nor permission,” Jeri responded.

  “Well, I’m glad he did it!”

  “Commodore, we should take the remaining complement of them off the Colt salvage and start integrating them onto this ship. We have nineteen of them, that should provide full coverage for a ship this size, with some to spare,” Jeri said.

  “Interesting proposal,” Tabitha deadpanned. “XO? What are your thoughts?” she asked, turning to Jackie.

  “The sensor suite in the Mark-4b’s give us a distinct advantage. Why these are not built into this new warship is a mystery to me. The 4b’s represent the best detection suite money can buy. And as we found out from the logs we retrieved from our engineer aboard the Colt. The 4b’s actually have better sensors in some regards than the more upscale Mark-4’s.”

  That got an eyebrow raised from both the captain and the commodore.

  “Explain,” Tabitha commanded.

  “His guess was that the 4b’s, as a later iteration on the same production line, have slightly improved hardware and software. An anomaly our chief found and documented was that the updates changed the properties of the detection suite, but those changes were never capitalized on. With only the Colt spotting the errant missiles while they were still dormant, I would say this gives us a significantly improved tactical advantage against stealth tech. While it would need to be tested against modern stealth tech, the stealth the enemy missiles were employing was enough to fool the passive sensors of the entire fleet, including the Nemesis. That failing is now correctable by hardware and skillsets we have on hand. I think we would be neglectful not t
o do it.”

  “Thank you for your assessment, XO. Now make it happen,” Tabitha said, a bit amused with herself.

  “Excuse me? Sir?”

  “Is there a problem, XO?” Tabitha asked.

  “Sir, we don’t have a ship.”

  “I believe we are on a ship, and that this ship lacks a captain and an XO, and I happen to be speaking to a captain and an XO who are without a ship.”

  At this point, Jeri and Jackie both were stunned at the implications. The Colt was the worst ship in this formation, and the Nemesis was a top of the line, brand spanking new capital ship.

  “Aw, geez. I’ll spell it out for you two! Jeri De Vitis, you are at this moment ordered to take command of the WFS Nemesis, along with your existing command staff. You are further ordered to improve her sensing capabilities to at least that of the WFS Colt,” she said with a wicked grin, “and to fix that hole in my ship! You are then ordered to proceed under my command to the Commonwealth so we can try to make peace!”

  “Yes sir!” said Jeri in a shaken voice.

  ##

  Tabitha Summers felting uneasy as she laid in bed pondering what all went wrong that lead into that ambush. At least through this mess, Jeri would have some redemption after getting screwed at Remus-5. And Tabitha would get to preside over an upgrade that would improve their passive sensory capabilities dramatically with no trade agreements! It was a win-win as far as she was concerned. And with the reassignment of the Colt’s command staff here, she would have Jacqueline Campo right where she wanted her, right where she could keep an eye on this woman! It was a feeling, really, and she did not get it about many people. But she just knew Commander Campo was destined for greatness.

  At least for the moment, she got to relish in the pride of the Federation fleet having a competent captain.

  ##

  The next morning was somber as they held a memorial to commemorate the dead.

  Two-thirds of my crew. So many friends. Jeri said to himself, shaking his head. And hundreds aboard the Nemesis, all avoidable deaths.

  Standing next to him was his XO and his other bridge staff from the Colt, Emilia, Rachel, Marko with their marine commander, Rick Amori, who should still be in the infirmary. After losing most of his marines though, only death could stop him from being here.

  Out of the bridge crew, Rachel the only one on the verge of complete breakdown. Not that others did not feel the same hurt and loss, but the marine she was dating did not make it. Major Sean Winfield died instantly as the section of the ship he was in was blown to dust, there were no remains to be found. No one faulted her for her shaking, nor for her tears that were shed. They were not the only ones released by the survivors of the Colt. Everyone from there lost several friends they knew.

  The crew of the Nemesis was shocked as well. The best armed, the best-prepared ship in the entire navy had its leadership decapitated without ever firing a shot. They almost lost the ship. They all knew what fate would await the Nemesis had the worst ship in the task force not been prepared and swung into action as quickly as it did. The crew of the battlecarrier knew to whom they owed their lives and the price that the same ship paid.

  The entire task force was waiting to hear Jeri’s words. Some were present in the hanger, the rest were watching on wall screens or tablets, except for the ones operating outside in the vacuum of space. Repairs and installation of the new sensor suite stop for no one.

  “It is times like these, that we know our purpose. We are not called to the task that is easy, but to the one that is hard. We are called to live, to fight and to die, if necessary, such that those we protect may live in peace. Four hundred and forty-two of our brothers and sisters answered that call and paid the ultimate price.

  “It is times like these, that we press in with our resolve to do our duty with honor and distinction. Let not our names be associated with mediocrity but with excellence. Let not our actions speak to self-preservation but to others-preservation. It is for our families that we fight. It is our friends, our communities. It is the person on either side of you.

  “Join me now, in a word of prayer for the families of our honored dead.”

  ##

  Jeri had spoken to the other captains, even the ones who had sucked up so desperately to Maron Breaux and Yusif Donners, showing no sign of grudge. He felt it was best to lead by example, and a leader is above this pettiness.

  He placed all of his remaining staff, except for twenty-five of them that could no longer serve on active duty due to the extent of their injuries. Half of those would be forced into medical retirement, honorably discharged. The rest would need extended time and more adequate facilities than on a starship to facilitate their full recovery. As such they would all be left here in the Veritas system and be transported back to the planet by the same name.

  Jeri knew those who were being forced into retirement, and few of them wanted to go. He understood their sentiment. Retirement was offered to him recently by his good friend, Josh. No, he preferred to serve and knew that they felt that way too. There was nothing to be done from his end. After they were medically cleared for travel, transportation back to the planet of origin for them would be arranged by the navy. Reassignment for the rest would wait under they completed their recovery.

  “Enter,” Jeri said after hearing the door beep.

  “Captain,” Jackie greeted him. “How are you holding up, sir?”

  “Trying to get my arms around this beast. While my experience on a heavy cruiser is helpful, this is a city made of guns!”

  Jackie giggled. “I’m trying to tackle this too in my own crash course.”

  “How are the upgrades to the sensory suite?” Jeri asked anxiously.

  “Complete. Much of it was just unbolt this, bolt on that. There were a few software upgrades. The entire fleet is reporting their upgrades are completed as well.”

  “Good, I need some good news! Ha, those Mark-4b’s did come in handy! And what about the hole in the ship? And the affected sections?”

  “The hole has been repaired. It will need a shipyard for a ‘factory-spec’ fix, but the hole is armored and painted. No one can tell the difference. The recoverable bodies from the affected sections have been cleared out, their remains properly identified for their families. Those sections will not be usable until this ship has time in a slip,” she said.

  “I expected as much. Good thing those pirates were too cheap for a nuke on the second stage of that missile,” Jeri said with a suddenly serious look. “And what about that other little request, the one from the commodore?”

  “We were able the truncate the wiring dedicated to the now defunct bridge, and connect new lines leading to the flag bridge. Again, not as good as if it was built like that, but it will suffice. Techs are installing new consoles now, within a few hours we will once again have a backup bridge,” she said in a quite pleased tone.

  “Excellent news!”

  ##

  “So, I’m trying to explain to high command about how our entire fleet almost got taken out inside one of our own heavily protected systems, and all they have to say is ‘do you have to delay this by two days?’”

  Tabitha was video conferencing with her captains. The meeting was interesting, to say the least. Many of the destroyer captains had privately messaged her beforehand asking her to reconsider her appointment of De Vitis as captain of the Nemesis.

  That’s their biggest concern, the bunch of suck-ups.

  The cruiser captains only sent more general queries, asking her to clarify her position on De Vitis captaining the most important new ship in their task force, which was a reasonable request. Though she owed them no explanation, she felt that throwing them a bone would shut them up, so she forwarded a report summarizing Jeri’s exemplary service record with her report that went over the events on Remus-5.

  Some captains were unfamiliar with the event, trusting only ‘official’ accounts and were appalled at what transpired. Their primary concern, howe
ver, was alleviated knowing the De Vitis had prior experience captaining an important and powerful ship.

  With that little drama settled, she asked, “has everyone installed the sensor upgrades fields by the late Alexie Popov?”

  She already had the answer from Jackie, but best to make sure the captains were on top of things. Everyone acknowledged the upgrades were in place.

  “And what of repairs? I want to know our state of readiness for each and every one of you. It is evident somebody does not want this treaty to happen, and I want to know we are ready for anything! So the blatant truth, please.”

  She went captain by captain as they listed out their issues. Except for the total loss of the Colt, the damage to the few ships that took hits was in armor being ablated, burned wiring and a few unexpected computer failures that their own engineers were working furiously to correct. Having the supply ships right there with them meant they could get almost anything they needed off a shelf or have it made without sourcing it from Veritas, which was a huge boost as this mission did not require further delays.

  “One further thing, I am making it standard procedure for the new passive arrays to be turned on at all times. We should not have unnecessary loss of life if it can be easily prevented. We leave at six hundred hours tomorrow morning, so have your crews rested and ready for the next stage of our mission. It is vital we secure this treaty as the Commonwealth plus the Federation together would more easily be able to stand up to the other players, and allow us to reposition assets to where they would be more efficient. Dismissed.”

  Chapter 18

  In the Veritas system

  Everyone was working as hard as they could to prepare for the upcoming diplomatic visit to the Commonwealth, but none so hard as Captain Jeri De Vitis. He not only obtained a career assignment of a lifetime, captaining the latest battlecarrier, but he had to familiarize himself with the additional capabilities the ship afforded him, differences in tactics, and make time to familiarize himself with the leaders among the crew.