by Kocho
“Thank you Sir.”
“You are welcomed …”
“Third fleet Sir?”
“Yes it is a fleet that will be positioned in the Centaury system. It is consisted of three Orion class ships, thirteen Los Angeles, of course the Prometheus that will serve as your flag ship when it is finished.”
“You plan to hit them in the back don’t you sir.”
Johnson smiled.
“I knew you deserve that rank. Yes. You and I bought know that when they come they will leave some kind of defense screen behind. With the technology they have they will easily spot the planetary systems in both Alpha and Proxima and the wealth it offers. Your job will be to lay low until the main fleet transitions to this system and then attack the element it leaves behind. Then transition after the main fleet and hopefully hit it from behind.”
“Sir…it will be hard considering the power of those ships. As you know we can’t mine that side as we can this one. It will be a pure ship to ship engagement.”
“Yes. But it is a must. I plan to make a request for at least two of the new Orion class ships and several of the Los Angeles class to be transferred to you.”
“Thank you Sir. When do I take command?”
“You will take command at the end of the weak. I will need the crew transfers you would like by tomorrow so that you can start with the exercises immediately after taking command.”
He handed Jennings a pile of documents that were on his desk.
“These are the files of the other commanders of the fleet. It will allow you to get to know them better before taking command. One of them is Kirkpatrick. He was my first officer on the carrier. He will command the Farragut the other Orion class. Use him he will help you.”
Jennings smiled as he took the papers.
“I will sir. Thank you.”
“Good admiral. That is all. Good luck and good hunting.”
“Thank you Sir.”
They both stood and shook hands and Jennings left the office. As he passed the halls he got salutes from every one. He got them before too but it was strange now. With his new rank he outranked most of the people he passed. The Space Navy headquarters were placed in a new building that was constructed in Washington. There were rumors of objections from several other nations especially from China, Great Britain and Russia, but considering that the US was the largest investor in the end the decision stayed. The complex was still under construction as new offices were added. The same process was going over the pentagon as the need for a higher protection was seen considering the fire power of their new enemy. And it was happening all over the world.
The name EFSF (Earth Federation Space Fleet) didn’t last very long.
Instead it was renamed in to EDSF or Earth Defense Space Fleet.
The ranks remained the same with Levin as the fleet commander. Most of the officers commanding the fleet and the personal came from the US and Britain but the individual ships were commanded by commanders from the countries that built the ships. The separation was till there but the mutual need and the imminent danger kept the old rivalries quiet and the trust was slowly growing. The regular fleet exercises helped a lot about that considering how often they were conducted.
Jennings opened the files as he entered the car that was driving him home. He looked at the names of his commanders.
He had a mixed crew. Most were from the US but there were also from Russia, China, Britain, France and one from South Africa.
The battle cruisers were under British, and US command. The mixing came with the submarines.
He looked at the names.
He already knew about Robert Kirkpatrick. The relatively young captain was a good officer. And considering that he was second in command of the carrier Abraham Lincoln during the battle in the Mediterranean he had experience in fighting the aliens.
The commander of the British ship The Prince Royal was Captain Elisabeth Hutchinson a forty five year old captain in the Royal navy. She was an experienced captain having a command over several destroyers and frigates during her long career.
Captains Connor, Macintyre, Anderson, Roberts and Evans were the five US captains of the five Los Angeles ships the Maryland, Nebraska, Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson and Argonaut.
Captains Ivanov and Kamarov commanded the two Russian subs, the Yuri Dolgorukiy and the Kursk.
Kamarov was the commander of the Russian submarine that was involved in the first battle.
The Chinese were represented by two ships the Sun Tzy and the Chien commanded by Wu Thao and Li Quang.
The two other British ships were the Resolution and the Repulse and were under the command of captains Terence Laurence and Jason Web.
Captain Maxim Reteau was the commander of the Vigilant.
The last ship was the one under command of Captain Andre Ratala the Manthatisi.
The fleet already conducted exercises for the past two months so he guessed that they won’t have trouble with coordinating although considering that they will operate alone as a far smaller fleet than the First and second Fleets a lot of work was ahead of them.
As he did that he already started making plans of how to best utilize his ships.
18 March 2019 21:00 hours
USS John Paul Jones Sol System
Jennings closed his eyes for a moment. He took command of the fleet two days ago and immediately conducted the exercises. He was pleased from the first two days. The fleet coordinated well and each ship had remarkable scoring results. They were operating independently from the first and second fleet considering that they were on a different mission. They had one more month of exercises before transitioning through the warp point to Proxima Centaury. He got the good news from the last meeting from Admiral Johnson about the ten more ships that were going to be added to his group.
Two more were Orion’s, five Los Angeles’s, and two corvettes that were being constructed by the Terra Nova shipyard on Ceres.
It increased his fleet to twenty six ships and gave him a lot more additional fire power. They were also presenting him with a problem considering that they were still at least seven maybe even eight months away from completion so he would have trouble integrating them with the squadrons. But that was a problem for another time.
The crews showed remarkable communication and he was surprised that there was no tension. There were the wishes for competing and showing of but that was good. It made everyone work harder and increased morale. He briefed the commanders about their mission on the first meeting. They all knew what was being asked from them and the fact that they might not succeed.
He reviewed the information that the AI’s had about the Dacarians. The info was old, really old but it could still prove useful. At least the comparing with the way the behaved in the battle on Earth almost two years ago showed some similarities. They seemed to operate in a similar way that humanity was planning. They used lots of fighters with well-armed heavy ships as support for the carriers and dreadnoughts and battleships. In the information about the past engagements it was obvious that a Hyperion D Class battleship like the Argus was more than capable of confronting even several of those ships, and the AI’s after reviewing the information about the capabilities of the Dacarian cruiser claimed that it was still the same. They had some doubts considering the fact that a lot of time past since the last conflict but it seemed that the Dacarians although made some advancements were still relaying on the old technologies. They were mostly using plasma and laser weapons, but also had powerful rail gun batteries. The point defenses were impressive so that ruled out the attack with the vipers at least before they could be softened. With the five Orion class ships he had 200 vipers at his disposal. He also had thirty shuttles, a less powerful model than the raptors on board the Argus but still they were good for launching missile attacks. He was exercising the option for using them for launching nuclear missiles at close range.
His biggest problem and fear was not from the enemy weapons but from their s
ensors. The fleet had to stay hidden until the main fleet transitions through the Warp Point. And even if it was smaller than the First and Second Fleet it was still hard to hide twenty six ships.
He reviewed the composition of the Centaury system, the Alpha, Beta and Proxima Centaury.
“We might use the bright radiation and hide with the power systems down, silent running. Have to confer with Anaya about that, she might run simulations with the sensors from the Argus.”
He decided to do that the next time he had a chance to talk to Anaya and turned his thoughts to other matters. As he did that outside the work continued.
The Ceres mining system was already under way, and the construction of the shipyard was starting. The factory ship was close to its destination, and with the increasing productivity in the other mining sites in the Asteroid Belt the Argus and the two cruisers were planned to be placed for their final retrofitting inside the belt as soon as the Ceres shipyard became operational. For that to happen sooner both the Navy and the other mining corporations joined forces with the Terra Nova Mining Company and that increased the speed in which the base was being built. Considering that the shipyard that the Terra Nova was building was small for housing ships of the size of the three ancient ships a second shipyard, this one under the control of the navy was being built on the other side of Ceres. Considering that Terra Nova got the mining rights for Ceres a deal was struck that after it was finished the shipyard will be a joint venture from all involved. The Navy didn’t object considering the huge investments that had to be put in it and neither did the mining corporations who all knew what owning a shipyard from that size would mean in the future.
Humanity was preparing for the invasion as fast as it could. Nothing, not even the huge risks that had to be taken in order to open the mines in the asteroid belt, not even the constant death toll that happened regularly as accidents happened, especially among the new recruits, nothing scared them. It was strange to see people from all six continents working together, former enemies working side by side. No matter what religion, what problems they had between them for the first time in their history everyone knew of one fact… that they are all humans, and that they all have a common enemy.
The D- Day was fast approaching, now less than a year away and they all knew that they will be ready for it when it comes.
The warp point was constantly guarded and now was already mined with over two thousand nuclear bombs placed around it. None was active for the moment but they could all be activated in less than a second.
Several years ago the production of new powerful nuclear weapons was forbidden. Now the weapons were mass produced. The ones placed around the warp point were drifting from twenty five to three hundred megatons and five more each in the range on five hundred megatons were planned to be placed in the next couple of months. When the enemy would transit from the warp point he was going to be in for a rude surprise. And even if he survives the nuclear Armageddon that was waiting for him he would have a fleet waiting as well.
According to the AI once long ago they considered humanity’s ancestors for their greatest enemies. They would see that that enemy is still here and is ready to exact his revenge.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
12 SEPTEMBER 2019 19:21 hours
Ceres Shipyards Ceres Sol System
Le Blanc looked with amazement at the site that stretched before his eyes. He was standing on the edge of the small ridge above the Piazzi crater. And before his eyes he could see the magnificence of what he managed to accomplish in the last year. The sun so distant from here was still giving it’s warmth as much as it could, and above all it was giving dim light. The temperature was 40 degrees below zero which considering there was no atmosphere was pretty warm. In his white space suit he was standing out on the shady grey surface.
Where a year ago there was only barren rock, ice and dust now he was seeing a magnificent base. The largest feature was the factory ship that was anchored in the distance, along with the two additional human build factories next to it. Not too far from them the shipyard rose up in to the blackness.
“It would have been heavens or maybe sky back on Earth.”
The shipyard had two finished slips and three more were under way. They would be finished in the next few months but not before the battle. He hoped that they would be finished before that, so the work crews were going constantly in four shifts of six hours.
Six retractable lanes connected it with the Factory ship and the smaller human build factories next to it. He smiled at the thought next to it. The factories were separated from the ship each one almost two miles distant.
They were secured and built in to the rocky core of the asteroid, revealed here by the huge impact that created the crater in the distant past. The doomed complex in the middle of the crater housed a small city. It was the home for the mining and engineer crews, and the Terra Nova offices.
In total it was home to over three and a half thousand people. They named the city Ferdinandea after the real name Piazzi gave the asteroid when he discovered it. Lanes were built in to the ground that connected the city with the mines and the landing pads were the materials were brought. Two huge underground storage facilities were built and connected with the factories for storing the huge amounts of material that were mined both on Ceres and on the other Asteroids. Iron, Nickel, Titanium, Tungsten, Aluminum, Platinum and all other kinds of metals were stored in tons. It was unimaginable wealth. Huge basins of purified water from the station built on the other side of the crater were also underground.
The long speculated amounts of water on Ceres, frozen of course were now confirmed. And with that plans were formed, plans that would make Ceres one of the most important places in the Solar system in the future, but all that depended on the outcome of the battle that was now just several months away.
As if thinking of that Le Blanc looked at the two ships that were orbiting above. They were orbiting at a distance of one hundred kilometers preparing for leaving the system together with eight other ships to join with third fleet in the Proxima Centauri system. He tried to imagine the huge ship that was orbiting on the other side of Ceres. The battleship Argus was docked on the much larger Ceres shipyards on the other side of Ceres built in a second smaller crater. They were the naval shipyards. Four repair ships were docked alongside it conducting the repairs. It would take two more months for the repairs to be finally finished. And much bigger were planned for after the battle. Argus had huge damages and it would have to be basically rebuilt the next time it would enter in the shipyards. But that process would take years and that was time they didn’t have.
The two cruisers were already repaired as much as the current technology that humanity had could repair them. The armor on both ships was far stronger although the added armor, the same one that was placed on the newly build ships was far weaker than the materials used to build them. But those metals were still in the unknown. It was hoped that through the mining of the asteroids new metals would be found. So far nothing like that was uncovered. But the titanium, a metal that was a rarity in the past was now in abundance. And more and more it was used in the ships that were being built.
In theory the armor on both corvettes was far stronger than the armor that the first ships had, even the Orion’s.
The corvettes were far smaller. They were just ninety five meters long, twenty four high and from twenty to thirty four meters wide. There were no launching bays.
They had just two and a half meters of steel but they had five meters of titanium plates. It had one meter of the composite armor of ceramics, carbon nanotubes, and titanium diboride and boron nitrides, and the electrical armor.
The weaponry consisted of a single MAC canon on its underside that could fire ten ton projectiles at speeds of 100 km/s, power thanks to the four fusion reactors that powered its VASIMR engines.
It had ten missile launching tubes, ten rail guns that fired small caliber projectiles, two plasma canons on its sides a
nd a point defense that was consisted of sixteen dual kinetic platforms and of course the AEGIS system.
The corvettes were small but they were powerful. Thanks to the powerful fusion reactors they had a high rate of fire from all the smaller weapon systems and could fire three shots on after another form the main gun. But the biggest surprise on them, were the only conventional weapon that proved itself that it could break the armor on the cruiser. The corvettes had four sixteen inch guns that fired 400mm tungsten armor piercing shells and six five inch guns. They were placed on the front hull and could rotate. Thanks to the improvements that became possible with the information’s the AI’s provided they were shorter but more powerful. They fired shells at speeds of 1600 m/s. That was twice the speed of the weapons on the Missouri. They could be fired as part of the offensive weapons and the defense network. That gave the small ships a lot of firepower and made them a class that was really wanted. The same weapons system was placed on the new Orion and Essex class ships. They had the same amount of guns that the Missouri had.
And they were ships his company constructed, the creation of people he employed. He felt pride as he watched them. Two more were under construction here and dozen more on the Ceres shipyards and Earth.
It was a class of ship that he got the chance to name. He chose the name
Seahawk, in the memory of the submarine by the same name, that became the first casualty in the war that was coming. One of the engineers that first proposed this type of ship had several friends that served on it. He proposed the name and Le Blanc agreed. The first corvette was named after it.
Even with all the new construction the enormous crater still looked empty. It was a deep one indicating the power of the collision that happened probably millions of years ago. Pieces of Ceres were probably still circling somewhere in the Solar system.
