Milor!

by Thomas DePrima

  The Prometheus' laser gunners knew that targeting approaching torpedoes took priority over firing on the trapped ships so they began to concentrate their fire on Milori torpedoes as they approached. The Prometheus' own torpedo gunners were firing as quickly as new torpedoes could be loaded into the bow, larboard, and stern tubes. The prodigious number of tubes on the battleship meant that torpedoes were almost always available as soon as the tactical officers achieved a target lock. Steady emanations of torpedo trails were visible leading away towards the Milori ships.

  The Milori gunners began to concentrate ever more on defense as the Space Command torpedoes neared their ships, and their gunners were able to destroy a substantial number of the torpedoes. But each time one got through, the fire from that ship diminished noticeably, and left it a little more susceptible to fire from the trailing task force ships.

  Spaced fifteen seconds apart on alternating sides of the elongated trap, the other ships were beginning their runs behind the Prometheus. The Chiron was in what's normally called the 'cleanup' position, with its destructive load of WOLaR torpedoes at the ready.

  The Prometheus completed its pass in just two minutes, but each of the hundred and twenty seconds seemed like an eternity. As the first ship into the fray, it had taken the brunt of the enemy laser offensive. The heavily battered ship moved off and took up a position where it could watch the activity while remaining out of effective laser range. A number of guns on the Milori ships were now silent, but all ships still appeared to be firing. The mines continued to inflict ever greater tolls as the Milori ships probed for a way out of the cage.

  As each of the task force ships completed its run, it took up a position near the Prometheus, twenty-five thousand kilometers from the cage. All eyes on the bridge of the Prometheus watched as the Chiron fired its normal torpedoes, before sending in the special torpedoes from its stern tubes. With the WOLaRs aimed at points between ships, rather than at any particular ship, it was hoped that the Milori gunners would be concentrating more on torpedoes actually coming towards their vessel. The WOLaR torpedoes would detonate when they reached a point along the center line of the trap, unless they struck a maneuvering ship first.

  The first WOLaR explosion occurred as the Chiron was halfway through its run. The blast temporarily blinded all visual sensors, but as the sensors reset, view screens showed that several Milori ships had been destroyed. Other nearby ships, heavily damaged by the blast, had been pushed outward into the surrounding minefield and small secondary explosions filled the area. Incredible explosions continued to annihilate enemy vessels until the Chiron reached the observation area where the rest of the task force waited.

  Milori gunners managed to destroy four of the special weapons before they could detonate, but the six that did detonate decimated the ranks of the Milori warships. As the blinding light from the last of the WOLaR detonations winked out, Jenetta turned towards the com operator and said, "Send in the fighters."

  The fighters had moved up from their original positions after launch, to a dozen assembly points where they'd be ready when called. They had thus far been exempt from any of the action and the pilots were anxious to begin their attack on the invading horde. When the order to attack came down, the squadrons moved in quickly to engage the Milori ships.

  It soon became apparent that the blasts from the special weapons had caused an unforeseen effect. Some mines along the grid had been temporarily 'blinded' by the explosions and their systems had entered a self-test mode, making the mine inactive. The tactical officer aboard the Prometheus worked furiously to reboot the mines and reactivate them, but a couple of dozen Milori ships managed to escape from the entrapping barrier before the mines came back on-line. While the network of mines immediately began to reposition themselves and seal the gaps, the fighters moved to engage the freed ships.

  Jenetta, watching the action from the bridge of the Prometheus, said to the com operator, "Message to all ships. Engage the Milori that have escaped the minefield. Message to fighters. Concentrate on destroying the laser arrays of the ships still inside the minefield rather than perforating their hulls."

  Within seconds, the fifteen Space Command ships were once again underway. The fighters outside the minefield broke off contact and moved inside the trap to engage the enemy ships that were still firing from there.

  If the Milori ships had been Raider ships, they probably would have broken off and left the area as quickly as they'd come, but the Milori were trained military professionals who didn't run from a battle. They had taken crippling injuries to their ships but they continued to fight on as the Space Command ships engaged them. As Jenetta expected, the battle turned into a real slugfest. The fate of the SC ships was largely in the hands of the helmsmen and the gunners as the battle raged on. Jenetta, feeling a little impotent at this point, could do little but watch as Gavin, sitting in his bridge chair, issued orders to the helmsman. The gunners didn't need any new instructions. They would follow their standing orders to fire on any enemy ship that constituted a threat until ordered to stand down.

  There was little that the Prometheus and the other task force ships could do except slug it out head to head with the freed Milori ships. Luck would play a significant role as the two well trained fighting forces tried their best to destroy the other, but the severe damage already visited upon the Milori while they were in the trap gave a slight advantage to the Space Command ships. The battle would rage both inside and outside the mined area until the guns became silent and torpedoes no longer filled space between opponents.

  Gradually, the fighting lessened, and then ceased. It was over. The space in and around the minefield was littered with debris and the corpses of ships.

  The Prometheus, although heavily damaged, was still able to move under its own power. Gavin ordered the helmsman to pull the ship back out of effective laser range, in case there was still some life left in any of the Milori ships.

  "Damage reports," Gavin said to the com operator.

  "Aye, Captain. They're coming in already," the com operator said.

  The com chief handed a holo-tube to Jenetta as Gavin took the one from the holder mounted on his chair. They both scanned the list as the ship's computer continually updated the information. It was serious.

  At least four torpedoes had hit the Prometheus, and huge holes were open in the hull, exposing half a dozen decks to open space. Hits by laser fire were estimated to be in the thousands, and no part of the ship had been spared. The casualty figures at this early stage listed thirty-eight dead and over a hundred wounded.

  Jenetta expected that those numbers would climb substantially. The ship had taken a brutal pounding. She turned to the com operator and said, "Contact the other ships and get preliminary assessments."

  "Aye, Admiral." The operator tapped a key that sent a prerecorded message to the other ships.

  Gavin put down the portable pad and started issuing instructions through his CT. The well trained crew could do their job without detailed orders, so his instructions mainly involved giving them information that they might not otherwise have. He sent Commander Eaton, his First Officer, to view the most seriously damaged areas, personally.

  "Admiral," the com operator said, "the reports from the other ships are coming in. You can see them on your holo-tube. Just advance the pages.

  "Thank you." Jenetta twisted the end of the tube and saw the damage reports from the Bellona appear after she reached the end of the Prometheus' damage reports. She quickly moved through the pages, reading all the reports. As bad as the damage to the Prometheus was, it was far better off than most of the other ships.

  "Com, I'm not seeing anything from the Asuncion, Beijing, Buenos Aires, Cairo, Mentuhotep, or Romanov?"

  "They aren't responding to hails, Admiral."

  Jenetta bit on her lower lip. It could be communications equipment failure, but it might be much worse. Damage to the Prometheus was too severe to dispatch anyone to investigate immediately. They w
ould have to lick their wounds and begin the healing process before assisting other ships. Jenetta turned to Gavin. "Captain, may I use your briefing room? I need to send a report to Supreme HQ."

  "Of course, Admiral."

  Jenetta walked to the large office on the larboard side of the bridge and touched the door sensor. The door slid open silently, and then closed behind her. She scanned the damage reports data on the holo-tube once again and then sat down at the captain's desk to record the message.

  "Computer, Priority-One message to Admiral Richard E. Moore, Admiral of the Fleet, Space Command Supreme Headquarters, from Admiral Jenetta A. Carver, Base Commander of Stewart Space Command Base, from the GSC Battleship Prometheus, with a copy to Captain Michael Donovan, acting base commander, Stewart SC Base. Begin message.

  "Hello Admiral. It's my sad duty to report that we have met the Milori, and suffered great loss of life. The battle has only just ended so damage reports are very preliminary. The surviving Space Command ships have taken a terrible beating, and we're currently unable to contact the Asuncion, Beijing, Buenos Aires, Cairo, Mentuhotep, or Romanov. I'm hoping for the best, but fear the worst.

  "We expected as many as sixteen ships to arrive behind the Ottawa, and were greatly surprised when the arriving enemy task force turned out to be comprised of sixty-three destroyers, twenty frigates, fourteen cruisers, and six battleships. It appears to have been a full invasion force. My early speculation is that they intended to quickly dispatch whatever ships were waiting to meet them at the border, and then move on to destroy Stewart, or perhaps seize it for their own use. Since we know that there were only sixteen ships in the Elurra system, the remaining ships had to have joined up with the pursuing Milori force as it traveled through the Frontier Zone. Being outnumbered almost seven to one, we're only still alive thanks to the entrapping minefield that we constructed. All Milori guns have now fallen silent but we're unable to check for survivors, and it may be days before we can even contemplate such an activity.

  "I hope that one or more of the additional ships coming to support this sector will arrive soon and be able to assist us. I'll file an additional report as soon as we get an accurate picture of our condition. Know only that we've stopped this invading force and half my task force remains minimally functional.

  "Jenetta A. Carver, Rear Admiral, Lower Half, from the GSC Battleship Prometheus. Message complete. Computer, append a copy of the bridge's video log from the past–– two hours."

  Jenetta took a deep breath and recorded a second message.

  "Computer, new message. Priority one message to Captain Michael Donovan, Acting Base Commander, Stewart SC Base, from Admiral Jenetta A. Carver, on board the GSC Battleship Prometheus. Begin message.

  "Hello, Mike. You've received a copy of the report that I've just filed with Supreme Headquarters so you know that our condition is serious. Keep the information confidential until Supreme Headquarters is ready to release it. Please reply with the current ETA of the ships on route to Stewart. We could use any available help.

  "Jenetta A. Carver, Rear Admiral, Lower Half, from the GSC Battleship Prometheus, message complete."

  Jenetta stood and walked to the food synthesizer where she prepared a steaming mug of coffee. It would take an hour or more for the officers on each ship to assess their situation, so there was nothing for her to do on the bridge right now. Later she would be able to collect sufficient detail to begin reorganizing her command.

  Sitting on the captain's sofa, she went over the battle in her mind, trying to see if there was anything that she could have, or should have, done differently. She couldn't think of a thing. They had been fortunate that things had worked out the way they had. Luck had definitely been on their side this day.

  Jenetta was still on the sofa, viewing incoming damage reports on the holo-tube, when Gavin entered the office about an hour later. He couldn't miss the pained expression on her face. She was usually so careful to show only a mask of complete imperturbability. He wondered if she was aware that she had let down her guard.

  "Thinking about the people that we lost?" he asked softly, as he prepared a cup of coffee.

  "I let them down."

  "Who?"

  "All of them. They were depending on me to bring them back alive to their loved ones. I failed, miserably."

  "Despite our losses, this battle can't be thought of as anything other than an incredible victory. The thousands that will be returning owe their lives to your plan."

  "I've been going over the battle in my mind," Jenetta said, almost as if she hadn't heard his words, "trying to determine what more I could have done. They almost caught us cold by adding that invasion force to the pursuit group the way they did. I should have been better prepared. I should have anticipated that they wouldn't come to meet us in combat unless they had much greater ship numbers. We had so much time to prepare that they would have expected us to be ready for them."

  "I've been thinking about that also. There wasn't any way that we could have known. Jeff Crosby and his people certainly aren't to blame. They had to be as surprised as we were. If not for the minefield trap that you devised, it would have been the end for all of us. We never could have won a battle against that large a force in the open."

  "Yes, we wouldn't have lasted long. I have to wonder if they really planned to invade now, or if the appearance of the Ottawa in the Elurra system precipitated the event. If we'd had more time, we would have had another nineteen ships as part of the task force."

  "They probably decided to move up the invasion date for that very reason. Once we knew of their intent, we would naturally begin pulling in every available ship for the engagement. I'm sure that they didn't want us to have enough time to get all our forces into play. If we find any of the Milori alive, we'll ask them."

  "I'm not so sure that they'll allow themselves to be taken alive. The three that the Ottawa rescued probably thought that we'd just release them on the nearest inhabited planet. And we would have, if our SCI agents hadn't turned up that tip about the Elurra system. We must intern any Milora that we capture now as a prisoner of war. How's the Prometheus?"

  "Commander Cameron tells me that we'll be as good as new in a few months, but he says that it'll take from two weeks to a month just to repair the hull sections where the torpedoes struck us, and get the entire ship pressurized."

  Jenetta nodded. "I noticed that the body count has risen to two hundred sixteen."

  Gavin exhaled loudly. "Yes, and we still have many unaccounted for. Some may have been sucked out when the hull was breached. Only about a third of our fighters have returned. We probably won't have an accurate count for hours, but I expect that the toll will rise above four hundred."

  Jenetta closed her eyes, lowered her head, and shook it slowly.

  "You're not to blame, Jen." Gavin asked softly.

  "I know that the Milori are responsible for starting this war, but I should have done better."

  "No one could have done better."

  Jenetta nodded. "Thanks, Larry. By the way, I've sent a preliminary report to Supreme HQ with a copy to Captain Donovan at Stewart. I've also requested that Donovan send me an updated timetable for the estimated time of arrival on the nineteen ships underway for Stewart. It's been eight months since they were diverted and a couple, the ones that were on patrol closest to Stewart, should be arriving any day."

  "It will still take at least a month for any of them to get here," Gavin said. "We're only thirty light-years away, but right now it feels like a parsec."

  "Yes, we're pretty much on our own for a while. Any word on the six ships that we're unable to contact?"

  "Nothing yet. I suspect that everyone is too busy just getting their own life-threatening emergencies taken care of. Since we and the Chiron have the strongest hull plating, we're in better shape than most of the others."

  "As soon as Bill Cameron and his people have stabilized the situation here, you should send them out to assist the other ships in
getting their emergency situations under control. Once that's accomplished, we'll need to check on the six ships that aren't responding to hails. Assuming that it's not simply a communications failure, we'll need to search for crewmembers that might be trapped in airtight sections, before their oxygen supplies are exhausted."

  "I think that we can free up some of the engineering people very soon. We've cordoned off the sections where the hull was breached by torpedoes, and posted security personnel to keep people from entering the potentially dangerous areas. Bill's people are busy checking the areas damaged by laser hits to insure that we're not losing atmosphere anywhere. Most of them self-sealed immediately, but they all have to be checked to be sure we aren't putting anyone at risk in those areas."

  "Of course."

  "Should we deactivate the minefield, Jen? It's still live, and Milori ships keep drifting into the mines. Each explosion sends the hulk spinning back away until it makes contact with another mine on the other side or another hulk, so we're seeing an almost continuous series of detonations."

  "I suppose that we should. I didn't order it immediately in case some of the Milori ships were playing possum. Deactivating the minefield would give them an opportunity to escape."

  "I don't think there's much chance of that. The fighters raked those ships over pretty good. If anyone was playing possum initially, I'm sure that they're not playing anymore."

  Jenetta nodded. "Okay, Larry. Deactivate the minefield. But let's keep a tactical officer scanning for any sign of life from those ships."