Forge of War (Jack of Harts)

by Pryde, Medron

  Jack frowned. The patrols just weren’t good enough. The Shang trap at the convoy had proved that. Neither the probes nor the fighters were really good enough to see everything around a fleet. He shook his head. They needed more ships, more hulls in hyperspace to keep an eye out. There had to be a way to get more ships so they could detect the enemy before they came up and started shooting. Accepting the situation as is was a good way to lose a war.

  “OK, Jack, enough obsessing,” Betty said.

  Jack shook his head. “There just has to be a way.”

  “I said enough obsessing,” she said in a more stern tone.

  “Fine. Fine,” he answered with a defensive wave of his hands. “I just wish-”

  “Jack!” Betty shouted. Her twenty-centimeter hologram glared at him, fists jammed in her hips. “Enough!”

  Jack sighed and relaxed back in his seat. “I’m sorry, Betty. I just wish…”

  “I know,” Betty said with a sad smile. “You just don’t like the situation. Trust me, neither do we. We’ve been trying to find a solution to it for over two thousand years. We’ve never found an acceptable solution short of throwing more ships onto the patrols. Either fighters or dedicated scout ships.”

  “And fighters take carriers.”

  Betty spread her hands out. “Which we don’t have here.”

  Jack frowned. He’d read that every Peloran Battle Squadron was supposed to have a support element that included scouts and a carrier. He couldn’t remember what it was called but it was on the tip of his tongue. He shook his head in annoyance. “Where is his support?”

  Betty sighed. “Aneerin is not in high favor on Pelora. Under the Albion, he commanded a Battle Fleet. Now he has a Battle Squadron. They ordered the carrier and the other ships home long ago to keep him in check. And now we find ourselves in the situation you have been obsessing over.”

  Jack chewed his lip and an idea began to form. “The onboard fabricators can basically build anything, right?” he asked, waving a hand at the Avenger that had been mostly rebuilt in just that way.

  “Yes,” Betty said in a doubtful tone.

  “Could they build new scout ships?”

  Betty winced. “I suppose they could. But there’s only twenty-four hours in the day, and the fabricators have been working at maximum to repair the damage we’ve taken. Rebuilding the Avengers with Peloran tech has taken up most of the rest of the cycles.”

  “But if we get ahead of the damage, we could build more fighters, right?”

  Betty shook her head. “We’d need more pilots to fly them. And the carrier with the living space for them and repair facilities for the fighters.”

  “Right, right.” Jack rubbed his jaw, turning his idea over in his mind, looking for holes. “And that’s the hard part, isn’t it? Getting transport for the fighters that give us eyes.”

  “Exactly,” Betty said in a sad tone. “We just have to hold out until the Battle Fleets arrive. Then everything will change.”

  “Yeah,” Jack said, still rubbing his jaw. “The people who took his fleet away to keep him in check will be so happy with him for pulling them into a war that they’ll give him a fleet and all its recon assets so he can do whatever he wants,” he continued in a sarcastic tone. “Yeah. I totally see that happening.”

  Betty glared at him before shaking her head. “Fine. You have a point there.”

  Jack shook his head. “We keep on thinking that all we have to do is hold out until the promised Battle Fleets arrive and then we’re saved. What if they aren’t coming here to save us?” he asked and waved his hand behind them. “What if they’re coming to keep Aneerin in check? To stop him from entangling them in some backwater? That Shang seemed real certain Aneerin would back off.”

  Betty met his gaze and chewed her lip. “I don’t like where you’re going with this,” she whispered.

  Jack laughed. “Yeah, neither do I.”

  Betty’s eyes went wide and she jumped to her feet, straightening her dress and hair with quick moves of her hands. “Hal!” she said in an excited tone as the comm. screen came to life.

  “Hello, Betty,” Hal said with a smile. His face turned to Jack and he added “Hello, Jack. We are approaching Alpha Centauri.”

  Jack glanced back at the maelstrom before them. That fact was real obvious.

  “Our last information on the situation there is eight hours old,” Hal continued. “We need real time intelligence. Are you up for it?”

  “Of course,” Betty said, holding her hands behind her back. “Is there anything else we can do for you?”

  Jack put a hand on his chin and smiled.

  “Be safe,” Hal answered in an earnest tone.

  Betty gave him a shrewd look. “You want us going in quiet?”

  “Very,” Hal said.

  The comm. panel lit up with another signal. “This is Cowboy One to all Cowboys,” Charles transmitted. “Clear for surface action. We are going in soft. Full EMCON, eyes only. Stay away from any large fleet formation if you can.”

  Jack raised an eyebrow at Hal.

  Hal shrugged. “So, maybe I was looking for an excuse to talk to my favorite fighter,” he said with an innocent voice. “Sue me.”

  Betty gave him an amused smile, not seeming angry with him at all for finding the excuse.

  “Well, I declare, Hal,” Jack said in a high-pitched southern drawl as he waved an imaginary fan. “If you keep this up you will make me blush.”

  Betty turned a shocked gaze to him, but Hal chuckled and shook his head.

  “Worry not, little lady,” he said in western drawl and tipped an imaginary hat towards Jack. “My intentions are pure and direct.”

  Jack sniffed at him and continued to wave his imaginary fan. “Well, I declare, but you are a forward young man.”

  Betty stomped her foot down on the console. “Jack, I swear I will throttle you in your sleep if you do not stop this instant!”

  Jack waved his imaginary fan and gave her an innocent look.

  Betty glared at him.

  Charles interrupted their standoff. “Surface in three…two…one…now.”

  Jack closed his eyes, felt the universe flash around him, and opened them to see the blackness of space with stars dotting it and the golden orb of Alpha Centauri A hanging in the distance.

  “We’re not done,” Betty said in a huff.

  “Yes, Ma’am,” Jack said and tipped an imaginary hat towards her.

  “Better,” she said with a sniff and the displays began to fill with information.

  The Alpha Centauri Trinary System was home to the oldest Terran colonies, first the Chinese as their first step in the space race, and then the Western Alliance colony three years later. The Chinese still claimed the whole system belonged to them, though the Western Alliance ignored that claim. The tensions of that arrangement made it the most heavily fortified system short of Terra itself. It also happened to be the most heavily industrialized system short of Terra, and Jack swallowed as their sensors began to log the titanic amount of refinery and factory stations in stationary orbit over the world the Americans and their allies called New Earth. Unsurprisingly, the Chinese had a different name for it but Jack neither knew nor cared what it was.

  The displays continued to fill with tags for Western and Chinese installations, and finally starships began to appear. Jack frowned as the battle lines rendered and he realized they were warships. Flags began to appear over the Western Alliance ships, showing a massive British fleet of over one hundred ships, with a dozen or so German and French ships in support. Jack’s eyes widened as he recognized one of the British Dreadnoughts, surrounded by a squadron of battleships that looked small next to it, firing broadsides of gravitic cannons and missiles like they were going out of style. Chinese flags began to appear on the massive wall of battle facing the British, and Jack licked his lips long before the sensors confirmed what he had begun to suspect. The Peloran had tracked their prey across five light years, half a dozen de
stroyed convoys, and now here the Chinese lay in his sights.

  Nearly two hundred Chinese warships, half of them heavy cruisers, were arrayed in a wall of battle and firing massive missile salvoes into the British fleet. Light cruisers, destroyers, frigates, and fighters of both sides hovered between the two main fleets, intercepting missiles from either side with their point defense batteries, and sometimes with their own deflection grids. A French destroyer speared a Chinese destroyer with a grav cannon, and nearly half a dozen missiles homed in on the wounded ship. Jack blinked as its deflection grid failed completely and a dozen nearby British destroyers and light cruisers shredded it with rapid-fire laser arrays. It simply ceased to exist under the assault, but the British paid a price. Several Chinese missiles snuck through the momentarily reduced point defense and ripped into a British light cruiser. It bucked as explosions sunk into it and then something deep inside the ship exploded, ripping the ship apart from the inside.

  Jack shook his head as another grav cannon salvo from the Dreadnought and its escorting battleships ripped into a squadron of Chinese heavy cruisers, piercing their deflection grids and ripping armor away, flinging it away from the wounded ships. Their missile salvo died far short of the cruisers though, the Chinese screen absorbing them.

  “Wow,” Jack whispered as he just took in the magnitude of the battle. Fort Wichita had been a mere couple squadrons compared to this and he thought it big. Now, for the first time, he could see true fleets of war at battle with each other, and the scope of it all amazed him.

  “Yeah,” Betty answered. “This is what a true battle looks like.”

  “Well, we caught them. What the Hell are we going to do with them now?” Jack whispered. They only had six ships compared to all of that.

  Betty smiled. “We’re giving the Peloran a real-time feed from ten perspectives on everything going on right now,” she said, and the other Cowboys spread out and flashed on the screens. “They’ll know exactly where to strike.”

  As if on queue, six Peloran warships flashed into normalspace right behind the Chinese formation. Weapons fire connected them and a dozen Chinese heavy cruisers reeled away, wreckage spraying from their ruined flanks. Fighters exploded from the Peloran launch bays and the plot came alive with missiles. Point defense batteries shifted to deal with them, and Chinese fighters swung around to meet the Peloran fighters. The Peloran Battle Squadron fanned out, spreading the fire across the Chinese fleet and more cruisers belched flame and atmosphere as the British missiles began to break through the point defense. Explosions wreathed the Chinese fleet from one end to the other.

  The sensors began to note gravitic surges from the Chinese fleet and Betty gritted her teeth. “They’re running,” she reported as the Peloran fighters spread out, sweeping across the Chinese fleet. Missile tracks at point blank range appeared and disappeared almost faster than Jack could see. The Chinese fighters fired at them, but seemed more concerned with ducking back inside their motherships before they dove for safety, and only a few of the Peloran fighters spun away or exploded. Spread out as they were, the Peloran fighters could do little more than tag them with a few missiles apiece that did little more than dent armor.

  Jack grunted. It might be good psychological warfare to show the Peloran could hit them all, but it didn’t seem to be doing much actual damage to them. A series of flashes worked their way across the Chinese fleet and it faded away, leaving behind a couple dozen smashed and spinning hulks.

  “Well, that’s that,” Jack said with a shake of his head. “It’s a real pity we couldn’t destroy more of them before they ran.”

  “Don’t be so sure,” Betty said with an intrigued look on her face. “I don’t think it’s over.”

  Jack raised an eyebrow and waved a hand at the screens. “They’re gone. We can’t track ’em in hyperspace!”

  “Not usually,” Betty answered with a smile. “But I think Aneerin just changed the rules.”

  Jack was about to ask how when Aneerin’s face appeared on the comm. screen. It showed he was speaking on a scrambled signal, broadcasting to the entire allied fleet. The man smiled. “I am Aneerin ap Taliesin and I wish you all good health, now and forever.” He raised a hand to forestall any answers. “I know the song and dance when allies meet. We do not have time for it. The Chinese are attempting to escape. We have seeded them with homing drones that can be tracked while in hyperspace. We will follow and destroy them. We welcome all allies to the hunt.”

  With that, the Peloran squadron turned away and the fighters returned to their landing bays. A dozen German heavy cruisers and destroyers pulled out of the British formation and accelerated towards the Peloran squadron. A face that could have been the base for an artist’s stereotypical painting of a highborn German officer appeared on the comm. screen.

  “I am Flottillenadmiral Axel Aarne,” the man said in a thick German accent that heavy metal singers wished they could copy. “Ve vill fly vith you.”

  Not to be outdone, the French light cruisers and destroyers accelerated past the German ships. Jack rolled his eyes as the French commander appeared. “Better get out the white flags,” Jack said with a chuckle.

  He felt something smack his arm and he looked at Betty in surprise.

  “Jack, that’s mean,” she said in a stern voice. “The French have a long and illustrious military history!”

  “Tell that to the Germans,” Jack answered with a smirk.

  “Napoleon,” Betty said with an answering smile.

  “A short man with delusions of grandeur,” Jack returned.

  Betty sighed. “Actually, Jack, he was taller than the average person of his day. And do you remember it was the Russians who defeated him?”

  “See?” Jack said as if that settled everything. “He lost.”

  Betty pointed at the German fleet. “Who did he have to roll over to get to the Russians?”

  Jack frowned and brought a hand up to rub his jaw. “Ah. Right. Good point.” He gave her an impish smile then. “Can we still have the white flags ready though?”

  Betty shook her head. “You are impossible sometimes.”

  Jack gave her a disappointed look. “Well, obviously I have to work on the times when I’m not then. I can’t have people spreading about rumors after all.”

  Betty sighed in an exasperated way. “No white flags, Jack.”

  Jack pouted and she crossed her arms with a stern look. “Yes, Ma’am.”

  “Better.”

  The comm. panel blinked and Charles’ voice came over the speakers. “All Cowboys, form on me. We have been ordered to support the German task force in this hunt.”

  “Roger that,” Jack answered and nodded to Betty.

  She smiled and sent them flying towards Charles fighter, which was moving towards the Germans.

  Jack smiled again. “The Germans. So can we-.”

  “No.” Betty arched an eyebrow at him.

  Jack blinked. “But you didn’t even let me finish!”

  Betty sighed and placed both hands on her hips. “I didn’t have to.”

  Jack affected an outraged expression. “Why? It might have been something important!”

  Betty gave him a shrewd smile. “You smiled.”

  Jack returned her smile with a raised eyebrow. “Hey. I smile just fine when it’s important.”

  Betty crossed her arms. “Not that smile.” She cocked her head to the side, daring him to contradict her.

  Jack’s expression fell. “Oh.” She was getting too smart for him.

  Charles’ voice returned to the comm. panel. “And no practical jokes, Jester.”

  Jack glared at Betty.

  Betty answered him with a smile of pure angelic innocence that he did not believe for a microsecond.

  “I’ll get you for that,” he mouthed. She waggled her eyebrows. “Of course, Chief,” he said out loud. “I wouldn’t dream of it, Chief.”

  “Right,” Charles said in a disbelieving tone. Then his transmission shift
ed to cover the squadron. “Let’s move people!” Charles ordered and Jack watched the screens as the squadron came together. At maximum acceleration, it didn’t take long for the fighters to match course with Charles. A minute later, they came around with a final burst of acceleration and slipped in beside the German squadron.

  Jack scanned the ships and pursed his lips. They were painted various shades of dark grey from stem to stern, making it hard for his eyes to focus on them. What he could see though told him that these ships were not designed to be beautiful or graceful. They were warships.

  The comm. panel flashed and the German commander appeared. “Ve are happy to fight vith you,” the man said in a voice that ground the words out like a cheese grater. Jack couldn’t tell if the man was mad or if that was just his normal way of speaking. “You may land on der Brandenburg and ve vill proceed to follow them.”

  “Actually, we can save time and dive with you,” Charles said in a helpful tone.

  “Vas?” the German spat out.

  Charles smiled. “Avengers are fully hyperspace capable.”

  The German’s eyes narrowed. “I have heard reports of these new craft. I thought they vere just typical American bluster,” he ground out. “Ve shall see how you do.” He turned away from his camera. “Brandenburg! Beginnt countdown!”

  The German disappeared from the screen to be replaced by another man who gave them all a stern look. After what appeared to be a quick scan, the man nodded and began to speak in a tone that matched his commander perfectly. “Drei…zvei…eins… einführung.”

  Jack shut his eyes, the world flashed, and he opened them to see hyperspace again. He frowned in thought as the screens began to flash with data and the general location of the Chinese fleet slowly appeared. They were running towards Alpha Centauri B.