by D. J. Holmes
“That doesn’t prove anything,” Captain Becket said as she joined the conversation. “No one at the UN will find it convincing. They’ll just assume the Flex-aor are slow at developing their weapons technologies. But I’m more convinced than I was.”
“We can analyze all of this later,” James ordered. “We have a battle to fight and win. Let’s stay focused.”
“McGrath is engaging the missile carriers now,” Miyamoto said, giving weight to James’ words.
Everyone turned to watch on the gravimetric screen. To catch the accelerating missile carriers, McGrath had her fighters coming in at a higher velocity behind them. That gave her fighters several seconds to open up with their plasma cannons. In that time, each fighter shot down at least one missile carrier. Amazingly, McGrath had picked her velocity perfectly, for a minute later her fighters were caught up by the accelerating Flex-aor missile carriers and overtaken. As they passed, her fighters got a chance to take another shot at the missile carriers. Another thirty were taken out.
“She knows how to handle her ships,” Becket commented.
“That she does,” Scott agreed.
“Now it’s Samuels’ turn,” Miyamoto said.
Not carrying any plasma missiles and not having to worry about a long flight to attack a distant fleet, Samuels’ wing of four fighter squadrons used its fuel to stay with the incoming missile carriers for much longer. Spitfire fighters had much greater acceleration rates than the missile carriers and they could slot in behind the wave of missile carriers and stay with them for nearly a minute before the missile carriers exceeded the maximum velocity the Spitfire fighters could maintain. Clearly someone in the Flex-aor fleet realized what was going on for as soon as Samuels’ fighters slotted in behind the missile carriers, they began limited evasive maneuvers. That helped them survive, but only to a certain extent. Samuels’ fighters shot down nearly one hundred and fifty more missile carriers.
“Only thirty of the larger missile carriers remain,” Miyamoto reported after the fighters pulled away. “They are much easier to hit it seems.”
“That’s fine with me,” James commented. The larger missile carriers fired from Flex-aor battleships, battlecruisers and heavy cruisers each carried ten anti-ship missiles. The smaller missile carriers only held six.
When what was left of the Flex-aor missile carriers reached engagement range, they released their missiles and hundreds more contacts appeared on the gravimetric plot.
“Order the Lancer frigates forward,” James said.
Thirty frigates broke away from the Outer Defense Fleet and moved towards the incoming swarm of missiles. The Lancer frigates were specifically designed to combat enemy fighters and bombers. They didn’t have any offensive anti-ship capabilities. Instead their armament was entirely made of point defense lasers, plasma cannons, flack cannons and AM missiles. As soon as they got into range of the incoming enemy missiles, they released a storm of destructive power. Hundreds of missiles were taken out. Despite their efforts, more than four hundred missiles reached the Outer Defense Fleet. The vast majority were shot down as even more point defense fire reached out towards them, yet some managed to strike their targets.
“Six ships reporting hits Admiral,” Yue reported. “None are serious enough to take them out of formation but they all suffered casualties.”
“Ivanov, rearrange the fleet’s formation to keep the damaged ships to the rear,” James ordered. “Yue, request detailed damage reports as soon as they are ready. I’ll go over them later.”
So far so good, James thought despite the loss of life. They had survived one missile salvo without losing any ships. That was far better than he had hoped. They just had to survive one more and then they could open fire.
As the second Flex-aor missile carriers came in, Samuels’ fighter squadrons repeated their trick and destroyed more than a hundred. Once again, the Lancer frigates whittled down the missiles that were released by the missile carriers, and then the Outer Defense Fleet itself lashed out at the missiles. More got through this time and at least thirty explosions were registered on Golden Hind’s sensors as missiles reached their targets.
“Yamata is gone,” Yue reported, anguish filling his voice. “Osiris and Hero are falling out of formation. Both look badly crippled. I’ve got damage reports coming in from a few other ships, but none are reporting they need to pull out of the fight.”
“It’s a good thing their missiles don’t pack more punch,” Becket commented.
“Indeed. I’m not complaining though,” James replied. The Flex-aor or whoever had given them their weapons technologies, had opted for a missile strategy that relied heavily on large numbers of small missiles overwhelming a target’s point defenses. In some circumstances that tactic worked well, yet if only a few missiles could get through an enemy fleet’s point defense fire, those missiles were largely ineffective. “Start rolling our missile pods,” he ordered.
Miyamoto had been waiting for the command and within seconds the missile pod doors of the battleships, battlecruisers and heavy cruisers opened. Each of those warships had been designed to have missile pods attached to their outer hulls. The effectiveness of missile pods in fleet engagements had been demonstrated five years ago when Koroylov had attacked Mars. In an engagement with other Human warships or ships with a similar missile range, the largest warships in the Outer Defense Fleet were designed to go into battle with missile pods attached to their hulls. The missile pods would boost the first missile salvo fired in combat. However, against the Flex-aor it was too risky to have the missile pods attached to the hull, for if a Flex-aor missile hit the pod, it could take out the entire ship.
As a result, the larger warships had an internal hanger where the pods could be stored, rearmed and, in circumstances like the Outer Defense Fleet found itself in, released into space. From Golden Hind, ten missile pods each holding four missiles were released into space and towed behind the battleship. A similar procedure was followed by the other capital ships in the fleet. As soon as every ship had confirmed they were ready to fire, James gave the order. Five thousand two hundred missiles tore towards the Flex-aor fleet.
“Battleships are to launch their fighter squadrons now, they are to intercept the next wave of missile carriers,” James ordered.
As well as having a hanger for missile pods, each battleship was home to one fighter squadron. James could have used them to add even more devastation to his initial attack, but he had held them back in case the Flex-aor had a few surprises of their own. Now that he knew they didn’t, the fighter squadrons could make sure the next Flex-aor missile salvo was as ineffective as the previous two.
*
Hack’tar trembled as she fought to contain her anger. She was failing and it was spilling through her telepathic link to her Captains. The enemy fleet had humiliated her and her people. Her flagship had been singled out in the first alien attack. Since then, she had been forced to watch the battle unfold from a crippled ship that couldn’t even open fire against the enemy. Now, an even larger enemy missile salvo than the first was about to close with what was left of her fleet. Through her telepathic link she could feel the surprise and fear from her Captains and crews. The missiles in the second salvo were much larger than in the first salvo. Their electronic countermeasures and penetration aids were far more effective as well. They will have those stand-off warheads, Hack’tar realized as she looked at the missiles. That hadn’t occurred to her until just now. They were all doomed, she realized. Somehow the aliens had developed some technology that allowed their missiles to detonate quite a distance away from their targets and still deliver some kind of destructive force. It meant the enemy’s missiles didn't have to fly through as much point defense fire as normal missiles. They could strike before they were shot down.
“They have more small ships engaging our missile carriers,” her Senior Captain said out loud.
Hack’tar growled. Whatever the small ships were, they had ripped the teeth out
of her attacks. “Use your mind!” she snapped at her Captain. He was trying to keep his emotions in check for fear of angering her and he didn’t want to open up his mind to her any more than it already was. Knowing that set her on edge all the more.
Turning her eyes and mind back to her fleet, a jolt of shock struck her. The enemy missiles detonated right as she looked at them. In an instant, a wave of destruction far more powerful than the one the first missile salvo had released struck her fleet. Within a couple of seconds, half of what remained of her fleet was vaporized. Almost every ship that was left seemed to have suffered some damage.
Despite her anger, Hack’tar felt moisture begin to run down her cheeks. Through her telepathic link she had felt the loss of every single individual. Though the warrior, worker and technician drones were bred to serve her and her mother, she still valued them. Now they were all gone.
“Wha… What do we do now?” her Captain asked, again speaking out loud.
Hack’tar didn’t have the heart to berate him. Her fleet had been defeated. She had been defeated. Never before had the possibility even entered her mind. Now she been driven back from one planet by an alien fleet only to be defeated by another alien race.
“My Queen?” her Captain prompted.
As the sense of loss began to fade, Heck’tar’s anger returned with a vengeance. She stood up and opened her mind to all of her subjects who were left alive in her fleet. She funneled the full force of her anger and disappointment to them through her telepathic link. “Now we fight to the death. We are Flex-aor. This galaxy is ours. We will cleanse it of all other life. If it is not us who finish this race off, it will be my sisters and your brothers. No ship is to surrender, no ship is to stop fighting. We will take as many of these aliens with us as we can.” Her energy spent, she sank back down into her throne. Then she shut down her telepathic link with her fleet. She didn’t want to feel their losses. Instead she stared at the enemy fleet as it closed with her ships and opened fire.
Chapter 4
To be real students of history we must lay aside our current preconceptions and seek to put ourselves into the mind and circumstances of our subjects. When it comes to Admiral Somerville and the other Admirals of his day, that is a very great task indeed. In our day we take it for granted that there are millions of other species out there, many of which the Empire has daily dealings with. What must have it been truly like to think you are almost all alone in the galaxy and then to have such notions shattered? We may never really know.
-Excerpt from Empire Rising, 3002 AD.
UNS Golden Hind, X-40 system. 14th June 2478 AD.
James set the datapad he had been scrolling through down on the table in front of him with a sigh. His staff took it as a sign to take a break as well. “We don’t seem to be getting anywhere with all of this,” James said as he looked at the weary faces that had looked up from their work. “Either the alien tech is far too alien for us to figure out, or it is something our scientists back on Earth have already deciphered.”
“Well…” Scott said slowly. “All of us aren’t scientists with advanced degrees. I wouldn’t have expected us to be any further along than we are after just one week. I think the UN science Institute will be happy that we managed to gather so many intact pieces of technology from the debris. By the time we get back to X-38 we’ll at least have categorized most of the technologies.”
James eyed his Chief of Staff. She did have an advanced science degree. Her knowledge had helped him in the past numerous times, especially when it came to alien technologies. It was in part why he had chosen her as his Chief of Staff. If she was happy with their progress, maybe he didn’t need to be as frustrated as he was. “Okay. Maybe we’ve been pushing things a little too much. But if we can crack any of their data chips, that should be our priority. If there are any other fleets out there, we might be able to find out about them. I find it hard to imagine the Flex-aor intended to attack us with just one fleet.”
“That, I think we can do,” Scott replied. “I’ll keep some of our teams working on archiving all the debris, but we can shift most of our focus onto the data chips that we think are intact. If you want, we can keep them on X-38 instead of shipping them back to Earth. There will be more scientists there that will be able to help us.”
James stroked his jaw. The fleet was racing back towards X-38. After spending just a few hours picking up survivors from the handful of destroyed ships and scavenging what debris could be gathered, he had turned his fleet around and headed straight for the shift passage out of X-41. He was concerned that his fleet was going to return to X-38 to find the planet’s defenses already destroyed. If there was no sign of the Flex-aor, though, Scott’s suggestion was tempting. “I’ll think about it. The UN won’t be happy if we hold back some of the debris, yet it might be wise.”
“At least there’s no sign of any more advanced technology among what we salvaged,” Miyamoto commented. “So far nothing seems to be a step up on the technologies we know they have.”
“Indeed,” James replied with a nod. “We can be thankful for that.”
“Might I suggest we take a break then Admiral,” Scott said. “We have gone over every possible scenario for what might be happening at X-38 when we arrive and we’re not going to make any more progress on the alien tech at the moment. I’m sure Miyamoto and Ivanov would like the chance to put together the battle simulations you’ve requested for the most likely engagement scenarios before they turn in for the night.”
James couldn’t help but smile as Miyamoto and Ivanov’s faces suddenly lost their haggard look. He could guess what they were thinking. Neither wanted their apparent tiredness to be the reason for James bringing his staff meeting to a close. “I suppose they would appreciate being dismissed a few hours before their watch comes to an end,” James chuckled. “We wouldn’t want them working overtime.” Of course, they had all been working overtime since the battle against the Flex-aor. “Okay then,” he said as he stood and stretched out his legs and arms. “You’re all dismissed. We’ll meet again tomorrow and see if anything comes to us in the night.”
Before anyone could stand, the COM unit built into the briefing table beeped. Instinctively James moved his hand over to activate it. Golden Hind’s COM officers were under strict orders not to disturb him during his staff meetings unless it was urgent. As he waited for the officer to speak, he shared a glance with Scott. Several of the ships damaged in the battle were struggling to keep the high pace James was insisting his fleet travel at. It was likely one of their Captains was reporting he would have to fall out of formation. Already James had left two ships behind to make their own way to X-38 at the best speed they could manage.
“Admiral,” the COM officer’s voice said out of the table speakers. “A new contact has just appeared on the gravimetric sensors. It is accelerating hard from the shift passage that leads to X-43. Acceleration rates suggest it is a scout frigate, though no gravimetric pulses have been detected. There are no scheduled scout frigates due to return from X-43 for at least a month. The ship is accelerating pretty hard as well. More than would be expected for a routine journey.”
James paused to consider what that meant. The frigate should have easily detected his fleet as it accelerated through X-40 on its way to the shift passage that led to X-38. There was no real reason for a frigate to be rushing home from X-43. The system had already been extensively explored and it was a dead-end. Though we didn’t know about the shift passage the Flex-aor used to get to X-41, James reminded himself. “Ping the frigate and request an immediate update. If they don’t respond send a normal COM transmission to them as well. I’ll be on the bridge presently.” After deactivating the COM unit, he looked around at his staff. “It looks like we’re not getting a break just yet. Take five minutes to freshen up and then meet me on the bridge. I suspect that frigate is bringing news of another Flex-aor threat.”
“Yes Sir,” Scott replied for the team. “We’ll meet you there mo
mentarily.” She looked around at her subordinates, catching each of their eyes.
She expected them all to be on Golden Hind’s bridge before James got there. Turning his back on them, James left Scott to it and stepped out of the briefing room. His quarters were only a few steps away and he was stepping through the entrance hatch into them before anyone else had left the briefing room. Before he even made it to one of his dressers in search of a fresh uniform, his steward, Fox, appeared out of a side entrance.
“Admiral, I have coffee freshly brewed for you. And I have let out a fresh shirt. If you’re going to be spending a few hours on the bridge, I thought you may appreciate a change of uniform.”
If this was the first time Fox had anticipated his needs so perfectly James would have wanted to ask some questions. The COM message he had just received from the bridge was supposed to have been secure. Yet somehow Fox knew. Of course, he always seemed to know. James had first met Fox when he became Captain of the scout frigate Drake. Since then Fox had followed him everywhere as his steward. “Thank you, my friend,” he replied as he took the mug Fox was holding out. James didn’t even complain as Fox unbuttoned the naval shirt he was wearing. In less than thirty seconds Fox had removed his old shirt and had a new one buttoned up in its place despite the coffee mug getting in the way.
