by D. J. Holmes
“Missile salvo entering range of the fleet’s point defenses in five seconds,” Miyamoto updated everyone. As soon as the defensive weapons opened up, space around the Alliance Fleet became a collage of color and explosions. The Alliance ships’ primary point defense weapons were laser beams and thousands of them reached out to swat away the Karacknid missiles. After a few seconds they were joined by Human flak cannon rounds, plasma bolts and AM missiles. Though the Karacknid missiles’ ability to carry out evasive maneuvers and their ECM were impressive, the Varanni sensor technologies had the upper hand. Golden Hind had had her sensors upgraded with Varanni tech, and her point defenses lashed out with an accuracy no Human warship had ever accomplished before.
The Karacknid missile salvo was quickly reduced to less than two thousand missiles, in the space of ten seconds, it was reduced by another thousand. Then the Varanni capital ships fired their arc emitters. For a brief second, Golden Hind’s sensors blurred as the amount of electromagnetic energy pumped out by the Varanni ships overwhelmed her upgraded sensors. Vast quantities of electricity shot out in a cone away from the Alliance Fleet. Every Karacknid missile that came into contact with the field of electricity had its seeker head fried and lost all ability to track its target.
When Golden Hind’s sensors returned to full efficiency, there were just four hundred missiles still tracking the Alliance Fleet. More point defense fire whittled that number down drastically until only a handful got close enough to strike their targets. Several explosions near Golden Hind told James that at least some Karacknid missiles had hit their mark. There was no time to try and figure out who had been hit though, for the second Karacknid missile salvo was entering point defense range from a very different vector to the first. Before opening fire with their point defenses the Alliance Fleet reformed its formation as Jorum issued orders, then the desperate struggle between Karacknid missile and Alliance point defense gunners began again. With the need to change formation and reorient the Alliance Fleet, the second missile salvo had time to get closer to their targets before having to dodge defensive fire. It allowed more missiles to evade the fire designed to take them out and more explosions erupted amongst the Alliance Fleet.
“No sign that any of our ships were hit Vice Admiral,” Scott reported. “All ships are reporting greatly improved hit ratios thanks to the Varanni sensor upgrades.”
“Guardian is reporting no ships destroyed,” Emilie added. “Several Alliance ships have suffered direct hits; none are out of the fight yet though.”
That’s good to hear, James thought. The Karacknid missiles had quite a punch. That no Alliance ships had been crippled from a direct hit suggested the Alliance ships were well constructed. Or we’ve just been lucky. Either way it’s not going to last.
“Our missiles are entering range of Alpha Fleet,” Golden Hind’s sensor officer announced.
James watched as the Alliance missile salvo closed in. Alpha Fleet had far less point defense weapons than the Alliance Fleet had, and they were facing many more missiles. To his disappointment though, the Karacknid warships were taking out a vast number of Alliance missiles. Varanni ECM isn’t very effective, James thought. He had known that, at least compared to the ECM of his own missiles, but no one had known how the Karacknids would handle Varanni missiles. They obviously weren’t having too much trouble. Even so, as James had learnt fighting the Flex-aor, quantity has a quality of its own. With more than seven thousand missiles closing in on them, Alpha Fleet wasn’t able to take out them all. More than a hundred came crashing in against their ships. Karacknid counter ECM and evasive maneuvers threw off many of them, but Golden Hind’s sensors reported at least eighty explosions. Several secondary explosions suggested Karacknid warships had been destroyed or crippled.
As soon as Alpha Fleet had been hit, everyone’s focus shifted to Beta Fleet as they came under attack. Events played out much the same and Beta Fleet lost several ships as well. Miyamoto estimated that they had lost at least twelve. There wasn’t time to analyze much more, for the Alliance Fleet came under attack themselves from Alpha and Beta Fleet’s next two salvos. This time James’ ships weren’t so lucky. A Karacknid missile scored a proximity hit on a frigate and the explosive force of the missile’s detonation was enough to burn off the frigate’s valstronium armor and tear open its insides. Though the frigate didn’t disappear in a secondary explosion from its engines or reactors overloading, it spun wildly out of formation, venting atmosphere, internal components and bodies. When Miyamoto brought up a visual of the frigate, James didn’t hold out much hope of there being any survivors. The frigate was a wreck and there would be no time to send any aid even if someone was left alive on board.
“Guardian reports three ships lost from the fleet, eight more suffered various amounts of damage,” Emilie reported. “Jorum is about to begin the final stage of Gupta’s Rush.”
James watched on the holo projector as Guardian turned onto a direct heading for Beta fleet. Every one of the eight hundred Varanni warships in the Alliance Fleet followed suit. In the blink of an eye their engines increased to maximum thrust and the Varanni warships tore off towards Beta. As Gupta had intended, the timing caught Beta Fleet in a difficult position. An Alliance missile salvo was less than a minute away from entering range of their point defense weapons. There was no way they could alter their heading to get away from the Varanni warships without seriously compromising their ability to shoot down the incoming missiles. They had to keep their trajectory while they were bombarded by another salvo of missiles. Golden Hind’s sensors detected at least sixty explosions this time. When the radiation from the thermonuclear warheads detonating reduced enough to get a clear look at Beta Fleet, there were twenty contacts missing and others falling out of formation.
Beta Fleet still had nearly three hundred and fifty ships fully operational though, and as they opened fire again, James found himself gripping his command chair a little bit tighter. This was the risky part of Gupta’s plan. Without the aid of their consorts, the eight hundred Varanni warships had to fend off Beta Fleet’s salvo by themselves. James winced as four Varanni ships were obliterated by direct hits.
“Alpha Fleet has pulled back out of missile range,” Miyamoto reported. “They’ve lost sixty-three ships by my count.”
“A fair exchange,” James acknowledged. “They’ll know now they need to come at us with their full strength. Let’s hope Jorum can whittle that strength down a little.” As he spoke, beeps from several command consoles announced that the Varanni warships had fired with their own missile salvo. With the range closing rapidly, it didn’t take long for them to enter attack range. With less missiles to worry about, the Karacknid warships dealt with most of Jorum’s missiles, though five still managed to punch through their point defense fire and destroy two more ships.
Presumably bolstered by their success in taking out the Varanni missile salvo, Beta Fleet altered its heading slightly. Instead of trying to get out of missile range, they came around to fire another missile salvo. They never got the chance to actually open fire. The heavy laser cannons on the Varanni dreadnoughts, battleships and battlecruisers out ranged Golden Hind’s most powerful plasma cannon by a factor of two. As soon as Guardian got close enough, Jorum gave the order to fire. In the space of a second, Beta Fleet went from preparing to open fire, to being ripped apart. Six hundred laser beams lashed into the Karacknid warships. Almost every ship was hit by at least one beam, many more were targeted by five, six or seven. No Karacknid warship could survive being hit by so many massive beams and Beta Fleet was devastated.
As soon as Golden Hind’s sensors could make sense of what was left of Beta Fleet, James knew they were a spent force. Less than thirty ships remained on their original course. More than a hundred were simply gone and the rest were either falling out of formation or spinning wildly out of control. To their credit, those that remained undamaged did manage to fire their missiles. A minute later they all disappeared when the Varanni’s
heavy laser cannons opened fire again. A third round of laser beams a minute later finished off any sign of resistance among the crippled Karacknid ships.
“That went rather well,” James said to his bridge crew after Jorum signaled for the Alliance Fleet to reform. He shared a glance with Becket. They had destroyed over four hundred and fifty Karacknid ships at the cost of just nine Alliance ships. If that exchange rate continued, they would have no problem winning the day. However, that was not going to happen. Several other Karacknid fleets were maneuvering away from Jaranna and coming towards them. Alpha Fleet had pulled out of missile range, but they hadn’t fallen back far. Soon the Karacknids would make another attempt to swarm the Alliance Fleet and this time, they would have numbers on their side.
Chapter 34
Despite all our technologies, despite all our training, despite the trillions of credits spent on the Imperial Navy every year, battles, and thus wars, can turn on two elements you can almost never account for; the element of surprise and luck. A commander who has one or both of these can overturn even the greatest of odds.
-Excerpt from Empire Rising, 3002 AD.
“Vice Admiral, they are gone! They are all gone!” Miyamoto said in a shocked voice.
“What?” James asked.
“Be more specific,” Scott demanded.
“Sorry Admiral,” Miyamoto said, just about getting his voice under control. “We’ve lost all sensor information from the inner system. I can’t detect Jaranna or any of the Mindus warships. It’s like they’ve all just disappeared. I don’t understand, what has happened to them?”
James stared at the holo projection of the system. He had no answer. It wasn’t just the Mindus ships that had disappeared either, more than half of the Karacknid forces were no longer being detected by Golden Hind’s sensors.
“Is it a fault with our upgraded sensors?” Becket asked.
“I don’t think so,” Scott replied, she was bent over her command console, tapping furiously at its controls. “We can still detect everything else nearby. I think that…” She trailed off as she continued to go through whatever she was analyzing.
James knew better than to force her, but when twenty seconds passed and she didn’t complete her sentence, his impatience won out. “You think what Commander?”
“I think it is something the Karacknids have done,” she said without looking around. “We detected a very slight increase in their reactor outputs just before everything went dark.”
“Maybe they have some kind of advanced jamming technology?” Becket suggested. “One powerful enough to hide the inner Mindus system from us? How could they have the power to do that?”
“That I don’t know,” Scott answered. “But I think they have. If every ship contributes some of their power to producing an interference field, together they might be able to.”
“Might doesn’t come into it,” James responded. “I think we can assume they have found a way to do it. The question, is why?”
“There are more than three thousand ships angling towards us from various vectors,” Miyamoto said. “And those are just the ones we know about. Perhaps they are trying to hide their main fleet and lure us to a point where they can overwhelm us.”
“Perhaps,” James said as he tried to put himself in the position of the Karacknid commander. If he could hide more than half of his strength from his opponent’s sensors, what would he do? It would take at least an hour, probably closer to two for the various Karacknid fleets that had been maneuvering against Jaranna to combine into one super fleet. By then, Jorum would be able to get the Alliance Fleet close to Jaranna. Then, even if the Karacknids attempted to intercept the Alliance Fleet, they would have to worry about the Mindus fleet attacking their rear.
“I don’t think they intend to concentrate their forces against us, at least not all of them. Whatever the jamming means, I don’t think it will be good for the Mindus,” James elaborated. “I think it is more likely they are trying to hide their attack on Jaranna from us. If we don’t know what is going on within the system, we could allow ourselves to get caught up fighting the ships they are sending against us when the real battle is happening deeper within the system. That means there’s only one way we can go from here, forward. We’ll not know what is going on until we push past their jamming field.”
“I think Jorum is of the same mind Vice Admiral,” Emilie replied. “The flagship is signaling for the fleet to increase velocity. Ships that can’t match the flagship are to fall back.”
“Acknowledge the order,” James said. Three ships pulled out of formation and turned back towards the shift passage they had taken into the system. James could easily imagine the mixed emotions of their Captains and crews. No doubt they would be ashamed at having to abandon their allies but at the same time there would be an element of relief. They would live to fight another day.
“It looks like Alpha Fleet is maneuvering to combine with Gamma, we’ve designated the two other fleets coming out from the inner system against us as Delta and Epsilon. Gamma will have fourteen hundred ships, Delta eleven hundred and Epsilon one thousand,” Ivanov reported. “There’s at least another two hundred ships coming in from the outer system to rendezvous with each fleet, though they will be arriving piecemeal. It looks like the Karacknids plan to employ their standard tactic against us. It will work a lot better with three fleets of a thousand ships.”
James nodded to his operations officer. “Now we will see if our counter tactic works. Make sure every fighter and bomber is ready to launch. They will be critical to our success.”
“Aye Vice Admiral,” Ivanov replied.
“More orders coming through,” Emilie reported. “The fleet is to split in three, we are to join the starboard formation.”
“Acknowledge the signal and carry out the orders,” James commanded his staff. Now the maneuvers begin, James thought. The best counter to the Karacknid’s preferred strategy was to make use of their central position. Splitting the Alliance Fleet allowed them to engage each Karacknid fleet while preventing the Karacknids from coordinating their missile salvos into one devastating attack. As each Alliance formation was much closer to its comrades than the Karacknid fleets were to each other, it allowed the Alliance formations to assist one another where necessary. Jorum was stacking his starboard formation with more Varanni dreadnoughts than the other two. With James’ fighters added to the mix, he intended to knock out the weakest fleet while the rest of the Alliance Fleet held off Gamma and Delta. Splitting their forces was risky, but in the simulations, it was no riskier than trying to fend off three large missile salvos approaching from widely converging angles.
James couldn’t help but be impressed as the large Varanni Alliance Fleet seamlessly split into three formations. His professional eye proudly noted how the ships of his own fleet matched or bettered any of the other Alliance member fleets. “Launch our fighters,” he commanded once the ships were in their assigned position in what was now designated First Fleet. It took ten minutes for all the fighters and bombers to launch. During that time, and for another twenty minutes, a series of maneuvers and counter maneuvers played out between the three newly formed Alliance Fleets and the three approaching Karacknid fleets. Guardian led First Fleet towards Epsilon Fleet and the other two Alliance Fleets pursued their own targets. Initially the Karacknid commanders tried to maneuver their own fleets so as to bring at least two fleets against one Alliance Fleet. As the Alliance forces held the central position and had more powerful engines, Jorum easily prevented the Karacknids from gaining an upper hand against any one of his fleets. Eventually, the Karacknid fleets ceased their fancy maneuvers and each one set itself on a converging course with one of the Alliance Fleets. The maneuvers had allowed the Alliance ships to advance into the Mindus home system and it seemed the Karacknids had decided to stop Jorum’s forces from getting any closer to their ultimate goal.
“They’re going to come at us,” James said when it became clear Epsilon Fleet
wasn’t going to pull out of missile range at the last moment. “Let’s give them a salvo of our multistage missiles. Coordinate them to strike alongside Jorum’s first missile salvo. Inform McGrath she is free to engage.”
Seconds after his orders were affirmed, twelve hundred missiles were launched by his warships. McGrath’s fighters and bombers accelerated after them. Against the Flex-aor James had always kept a squadron or two of fighters back to engage their missile pods. In the coming battle, such a strategy wouldn’t work. With literally thousands of missiles coming at First Fleet, a squadron of fighters taking out twenty or thirty would mean almost nothing. On the other hand, if they could take out a handful more Karacknid ships, that was where they would be best utilized.
As the Karacknid ships closed James counted down the minutes until they came into Varanni missile range. First Fleet was the smallest of the three fleets Jorum had formed with only five hundred ships, yet just over four hundred of those were Varanni, the rest were Human ships. Given that Varanni missiles significantly out ranged normal Human anti-ship missiles, there was no point in the Varanni waiting to open fire with his own ships. They would open fire as soon as they could. If he wanted, James could fire three more salvos of multistage missiles to allow his ships to contribute more to the battle, but he thought it best to hold them in reserve. Jorum had agreed. One multistage missile salvo would hopefully add enough confusion to the opening stages of the engagement with Epsilon Fleet to allow McGrath’s attack to be even more effective.
