After the war was over the genie was out of the bottle and humans now had the ability to travel the stars. The Vorooshin were forced back to their desert home world where they were reduced back to their former low technological status and placed under guard by an Imperial heavy cruiser. The Kazad had disappeared and hadn’t been seen or heard from since they were freed.
The Karduans were left beaten and without their masters to guide them. They had starships and bender technology and proceeded to fall into war amongst themselves over their master's former systems. This civil war continued until a council of matrons from the twelve Great Houses formed and made peace.
They then looked outward for resources and for conquest pushing into the worlds that had been settled by humans while they had been busy fighting each other. The human’s appeared weak but quickly proved that they had well developed ideas about warfare and tactics winning several battles even though they were outnumbered and initially had inferior ships.
Much of the Karduan tactics had been based on Vorooshin patar techniques. The Voroosh and Karduans both used the patar sword to settle personal disputes and to advance themselves within their social circle through single combat and dueling.
Still playing with her patar’s hilt, the ship mistress of KD 1244 wished she had someone to kill. Dueling onboard ship and amongst her crew was illegal though she was allowed to teach lessons, often very painful and sharp lessons. If she had been back at a base or slave planet she could have purchased a human prisoner to practice on but that would have to wait until this infernal sentry duty was over.
Looking up at the viewer she watched the symbols showing the Vanguard and the freighter as they moved towards the system’s gas giant.
“Mistress?” the comm. officer said in a nervous voice.
Glancing at her Second in annoyance she watched as she moved to the station. A hurried and whispered conversation followed.
“Well, what is it?” the Ship Mistress finally demanded.
“The KD 986 is reporting a disturbance at the gravity well but nothing came through,” the Second said turning to look at her mistress.
The ship mistress frowned and looked down to her monitor by the arm of her command chair.
“That’s impossible! Something had to have come through,” she remarked still looking at the data.
“Should we break orbit and move to investigate?” the second suggested.
The ship mistress let out a sigh before she answered.
“No, have KD 986 look into it,” she ordered, “It may even be a malfunction of their sensors.
“Mistress, the KD 986 is suppose to stay in the moon’s magnetic pole in an ambush and escape position to get the fleet if they are needed,” the Second dutifully reminded.
“Have them check anyway!” she ordered in a strenuous voice that let everyone know she was not in the mood for anyone questioning her orders.
“Yes Mistress,” the Second replied and whispered into the communication officer’s ear.
“And stop whispering!” the Ship Mistress added.
Turning back to main viewer she saw the KD 986 move from its hidden position to close on the gravity well.
“Mr. Dover how long until we are in firing position,” Commander Richards asked on the bridge of the Star Wolf.
As XO or executive officer he was not only second in command but was the voice of the captain on the bridge. He ran the bridge as the captain contemplated and observed.
“Two minutes, sir,” Lt. Alistair Dover reported and then added, “It seems that the enemy destroyer has moved from its polar orbit over Sterling Nine’s moon and is moving out to meet us.”
“Have they detected us?” Richards asked with a frown as he looked from the maser station to the computer station and back again.
Captain Hope sitting in his raised captain’s chair answered before either stations officer could.
“No, they are investigating the gravity well probably having detected its opening. The second destroyer is holding its position nearby Sterling Six.”
“They had set up a bait and trap,” Richards commented nodding in agreement with the senior officer.
“Yes but they broke their own protocols and have revealed their positions to us,” Mister Dover at the helm station commented.
“It wouldn’t have mattered,” Martin Daily at the computer station added and continued, “the Cody and Randori detected the first destroyer when they entered the system.”
“Sir, we are in range of the main gun and have a firing solution,” Dover announced locking the ship long spinal particle cannon onto the approaching enemy ship.
“Let’s wait until they are a bit closer,” The Hawk said seeing the mouse before him.
The Karduan destroyer had the firepower and armor of a human heavy cruiser but lacked the spinal cannon that the Star Wolf possessed. Their larger ships had spinal cannons but this was a human weapon development, channeling the power of their bender and fusion drives into a ship long weapon. The Karduans were still playing catch up and that gave the humans and the attack cruiser a temporary advantage over their Blue enemy.
“Just outside of their particle turrets’ range, sir,” Ben Lewis reported from the maser system.
He had been a second year midshipman at Harpers Military Academy before they stole the Star Wolf. He had also been lucky enough to serve on an old light cruiser during a summer tour where he learned to operate a maser system. Since then he had gotten lots of practice and was as well trained as a regular operator.
The maser detection sensors used tightly focused microwave radiation to amplify diffused waves of energy, which produced sharper and more sensitive radar-like contact. This allowed the Confederation ships the ability to detect the enemy faster than the Karduan sensors could. Though intelligence indicated that with the recent capture of so many Earth ships since the breakthrough of human lines that the Karduans had been refitting some of their ships with human maser systems.
“Main gun, open fire,” Captain Sir Randolph Hope calmly ordered as his hawk like eyes watched the main screen.
The Wolf's fusion engines flared for a second and then a beam of barely visible energy surged from the cruiser’s bow and slammed into Karduan destroyer.
The front of the destroyer exploded from the strike sending molten metal and armor plating flying from its bow that quickly cooled in the frozen chill of space. The ship reeled from the impact and was forced off course on a heading fifteen degrees to starboard with a quarter list.
“Reading massive damage,” Lt. Daily reported.
“Particle turrets, target her engines and fire,” Richards commanded.
The Wolf had three batteries of particle turret with three guns each. Two turrets were forward and one was aft. These were used for long distance fire. For closer work she had fusions turrets, which were only good at short range but were heavy hitting. She also had torpedo tubes, missile batteries as well as gauss cannons and point defense lasers for missile defense.
Despite the Wolf’s stealth plating, the KD 1244 could now detect her. Once she had opened fire they had used their human maser system to focus on that area of space and now had a target lock. Unfortunately for them they were out of range.
“Full speed! Close the distance and get us within firing range!” the Ship Mistress ordered.
“Fire all missiles batteries,” the Second added trying to occupy and hit the enemy as they made up distance and time.
“Order the Vanguard and freighter to come around and aid us,” the Ship Mistress commanded looking to the screen that showed the two lesser vessels as they passed by them on their course to the gravity well. They would be of little real use against an attack cruiser but they would provide two more targets that would draw some of the enemy’s fire away from her ship.
“The cruiser’s main gun should be recharging,” the Second cautioned.
“Faster! Order the Vanguard and the freighter up to act as screen for us,” she commanded leanin
g forward and seeing a way to sacrifice the worthless cargo ship and the Vanguard to achieve victory.
A moment later the KD1244 was rocked from an impact and the bridge crew fought to keep their seats. The ship mistress who was leaning forward was thrown from her chair to the hard metal deck.
“Report!” the Second commanded as the ship mistress slowly regained her feet.
“We have been hit with an anti-ship torpedo and our in-system drives are down. Armor is compromised on the aft section of the ship and we are taking numerous missile hits,” the sensor operator called out.
“Source?” the Ship Mistress said holding her hand to her forehead as bluish blood poured from a laceration.
“They came from the freighter,” the Blue maser operator said fumbling with the system that she still didn’t completely know how to use.
“What?” the Ship Mistress exclaimed stumbling over to the detection station.
“Aft turrets and missile batteries lock onto the freighter and fire!’ the Second commanded seeing that the mistress was hesitating.
Several more blasts rocked the destroyer as her thrusters and inertia dampeners struggled to hold her position.
“The cruiser hit us with just her particle turrets and is closing,” sensors reported.
Again the destroyer was hit and shook from the impacts. Gravity plating failed and those not fastened in their seats fought to keep from floating. The second and the ship mistress were already in the air and struggling to grab onto something.
“Mistress, the human captain is ordering us to surrender or face destruction,” the communication station operator reported.
“On screen,” the Second commanded pulling herself down along the side of a bulkhead.
The screen blurred for a moment but then cleared and showed an old gray haired officer whose face was like leather parched dried from the sun.
“This is Captain Sir Randolph Hope, commanding the ISS Star Wolf. We have refrained from finishing you off but unless you immediately surrender we will fire our main gun, which will completely destroy you. You have ten seconds to consider my offer.”
The screen then went blank.
“We won’t surrender! Continue firing!” the Ship Mistress ordered just as the gravity came back on line.
Falling to the deck she again pulled herself up to look at her Second standing above her with a pistol in her hand. Raising the pistol, the Second aimed it at her head.
“Signal the humans that we surrender,” she said as she pulled the trigger putting a bullet into her superior officer’s head.
Suicide was not a cultural trait among her people but dishonor was. Fortunately, it only fell on the commanding officer and not on those beneath her. The Second was saving her own life and that of her crew and the dishonor would be placed entirely on her now dead ship mistress.
The Wolf acknowledged the destroyer’s surrender and ordered her to prepare to be boarded. The first destroyer KD 986 was too badly damaged and was later nudged into the nearby moon’s gravity and crashed onto its dusty surface. The Cody was sent back to their last bend to bring up the Masterson and the Spider, which they had been left behind. They didn’t want to risk the Spider in this first action nor leave it alone.
Now the little brigantine vessel moved to the damaged KD 1244 and proceeded to do its job and repair the damaged ship. It would take days but this was a good a place as any to set another trap.
Mike was impressed with his Q-Ship. The Randori weathered the battle well and with only minimal damage from a fusion blast that hit one of his forward turrets. His ship and the Cody did a good job knocking out the destroyer’s aft power array and turrets - nothing like surprise being on your side.
Once the Spider and the repair droids get her drive back online then the prize crew would only need to limp her back to the Wolf’s Den. The Masterson would go back with her as escort along with all of the Karduan prisoners safely locked up in the destroyer’s cargo hold.
After three days the KD1244 was able to bend and was renamed the IPS Marquesa. Mike was ashamed to admit it but he had to look up the ship’s name and found that Captain Hope had named it after a war galley from the Battle of Lepanto in 1571. It was the same ship that Miguel de Cervantes served as a naval infantryman during this famous and pivotal battle. Mike hadn’t realized that the famous author had once been a professional soldier or that he had been wounded several times in battle.
No other ships had come along during that time and the government on Sterling Six stated that they weren’t expecting any merchant ships for another week.
Task Force Trident continued on saying good-by to the two captured ships along with their prize crews.
The next bend took them to the farming co-op of Planter Four. It was a sparsely populated world that had many farming families spread out over the vast region of its middle sun-belt region.
Entering the system, they expected to find a companion destroyer and standard destroyer set up in a similar ambush trap scenario. Instead both vessels were on station near the bender point and guarding the gravity well.
Once more Commander Hutton in the Cody and Mike with the Randori played the roles of ships needing fuel.
“Sir, we are being ordered to cut our power and prepare to be boarded,” Mister Jansen at the communication’s station reported.
Mike frowned for a minute and looked to Chac-Ras, who was working alongside his human friend Specialist Byrd at the maser and space radar stations.
“Acknowledge our cooperation and compliance,” he said to the Blue male who nodded in return. The enemy usually wanted live voice transmissions. On a freighter it would not be unusual to have a male Karduan operating a comm. system instead of a female.
Turning back to Jansen he continued.
“On a secure channel contact Commander Hutton on the Cody.”
A moment later Hutton’s stern face was looking back at him.
“It seems that the commander of these Karduan ships have change their ambush protocol and are instead set up on picket duty at the well,” Hutton said.
“They have ordered us to heave to and prepare to be boarded,” Mike informed.
The commander nodded, “Us too, it seems that these Ship Mistresses are either very suspicious or want something.”
“What should we do?”
“We buy time for the Star Wolf, she should be bending in shortly so pretend to comply. If things go south, hit them hard and make a run for the gravity well,” the former commando advised.
“Yes sir and good luck,” Collins said forcing a smile.
“You too Mike,” Commander Hutton replied also smiling a grim smile before the screen went black.
“Sir, the Karduan Companion Destroyer has moved into an intercept course and is signaling that they will be launching a shuttle shortly.”
“Acknowledge transmission,” Mike replied watching the screen.
“Aye sir,” Chac-Ras answered now standing over by Mister Jansen and the comm. station.
They were already at battle stations so Mike refrained from giving that order.
“Gunny Masters, prepare to repel borders,” he said in a claim voice.
“Aye, Aye Sir!” the old marine said leaving as fast as his old legs would carry him. He had already picked men out and trained them for just such an action and he quickly sent out orders for his security team as he moved to meet him at C Deck’s airlock.
Minutes went by as the Companion Destroyer moved closer. Nearby the Cody was being closed in on by the Karduan Destroyer.
“Helm turn us so that the shuttle has an easier approach vector and align us on a thirty-degree angle,” Mike ordered as he watched the approach of the Companion destroyer.
“Sir, that will cut down on the time it will take for them to dock,” Lt. Thornton replied.
“Understood Mister Thornton, but it will also line us up for a little surprise of our own.”
“Yes sir, engaging thrusters, twenty second burn to thirty degr
ees starboard,” Thornton announced as a bead of sweat rolled down from his forehead to his nose.
Mike opened a channel to engineering.
“Rufo, be prepare for maximum acceleration and high-speed turns,” he advised.
“No problem Lt. Collins, sir,” Rufo said having returned to the engine room before their last bend.
“We may also need to do an emergency bend,” Mike added.
“We are ready,” Cappillo replied sounding confident.
“Well, your other surprises better work or this is going to be a very short battle,” Collins remarked.
“No worries boss, everything is good to go.”
Mike nodded and cut off the image of the shit-eating grin of his Italian friend.
“Chief Baker, stand ready,” he ordered glancing over to the gray wolf operating the fire control system. That was the one weakness of his ship he really didn’t have enough crewmen to manually fire all of the turrets and had to rely on their automated fire control system.
“Enemy shuttle is approaching Airlock C and is moving to dock,” Jim Byrd report from the maser and sensor station.
“Let them dock and then scramble their comm. signal,” he commanded trying to buy as much time as possible.
“Lt. Collins, we are ready,” Gunny Masters’ voice came over his command channel.
“Roger that, when they enter take them down and seize their shuttle,” he directed from his captain’s chair wishing that he were with them.
Looking up to the main viewer he could see the second shuttle was closing on this Cody.
“Sir, we are detecting a disturbance at the gravity well,” Specialist Byrd announced.
“It’s the Star Wolf,” he commented thinking that the attack cruiser was maybe arriving a little too late to stop what was about to happen.
“Captain, we got all of the would-be boarders and have secured the shuttle,” Gunny Sergeant Masters reported.
“Good job!” Mike answered wanting to ask about casualties but refraining from doing so.
Wolf's Run: The Chase of War (Star Wolf Sqaudron Book 2) Page 9
