“Sir, our maser system is just barely detecting the Wolf only because we know where they came through but the enemy ships don’t seem to be able to detect her yet,” Byrd reported.
Mike smiled, “They don’t have a maser system!”
Now his bridge crew was also smiling. No masers systems meant that they couldn’t detect what was about to happen.
“Captain Hope said we had the fire power of light cruiser, so let’s see if he is right,” Collins announced.
The bridge crew made several grunting noises of approval but no cheering that would come after and if they survived the battle.
“Open Cargo Bay B’s door and have MML fire! All torpedo tubes fire! All turrets extend and fire!” he said one after the other.
Without a human maser system, the Karduan ships were limited to their own sensors, which were good but had a critical flaw. Mike and his crewmates of the Star Wolf had discovered that the Blue’s sensors couldn’t detect TPA or Trans-Poly Aluminum. It was an older ship metal no longer used but when they restored several old LN-29 Wasp fighters they found that even though these obsolete fighters didn’t have modern countermeasure programs other fighters did yet the enemy still couldn’t get a positive lock on them. It turned out to be that their frames had so much TPA in them that it interfered with the Kardie sensors.
The Karduan Companion Destroyer was the equivalent of a modern Confederation light cruiser and was the replacement for the older escort destroyer. Unfortunately for this one it didn’t have a captured human maser system to aid it. The first salvo of thirty-three missiles hit without its automated fire control system kicking in to shoot them down. A second and third volley of missiles came after the first from the Randori’s MML system. Both of the standard ships torpedoes hit the Companion Destroyer one in the aft and one to her bow.
Now the bridge crew of the Q-Ship cheered.
“Change targets, lock onto the destroyer and all energy turrets open fire,” Mike commanded getting his crew back on task. The Companion Destroyer took over a hundred missiles hits and two anti-ship torpedoes. It was not going anywhere while the Randori’s dozens of pop-up turrets continued to pound it as they moved to engage the other Karduan warship.
The Cody also fired on the destroyer that was moving towards them. The Vanguard then made a high speed break for it. She didn’t have the firepower to cripple the destroyer so when the Randori struck the KCD she fired and ran. The destroyer fired after the fleeing Vanguard but then turned to face the Q-Ship that had just crippled her sister ship.
Now a freighter is much bigger then all but the largest of warships. The Randori was an express freighter, being both fast and capable of long bends. She had been upgraded several times and had been mauled at least three times in her careers as a pirate, privateer and as warship. After each new resurrection she had been given more armor and improvements until now she was able to slug it out with ships that would have once crushed her like an old beer can.
Surprise was definitely one of the nine principals of war, which had saved their asses on numerous occasions, but now the Karduan destroyer was turning about to close the distance to the Q-ship.
“Cease Fire!’ Mike ordered from the captain’s chair.
Half the bridge crew turned to look at him but Chief Baker at fire control quickly stopped the attack.
“Signal the Karduan ship and ask them to surrender,” Collins said in a calm voice.
“Well sir, they can't deny you’ve got balls,” Gunny Masters said entering the bridge with on update of the killed and captured from Karduan’s shuttle.
“Sir, the destroyer’s ship mistress is on the screen and wishes to speak with you,” Mister Jansen informed.
“Put her on main viewer,” Collins said calmly.
An angry looking Karduan female was seated on the bridge of the destroyer.
“I’m Ship Mistress Tre-Nan of the KD137,” she started as she leaned forward. “Do I understand that you wish to surrender?”
The crew of the Randori all laughed for moment, which made the Ship Mistress look to her Second for moment with a questioning expression.
“I’m Lt. Michael Collins, Captain of the Imperial Q-Ship Randori,” he said in Karduan.
The look on her face became one of shock as this human male spoke to her in her own language. She had never thought such animals could grasp such an elegant and graceful tongue.
Mike ignored her surprised expression and continued.
“You are mistaken, we are not surrendering but demanding that you surrender to us,” he said and looked at he as coldly and indifferently as he could.
The Ship Mistress again looked to her left at her Second, who shook her head.
“You must be insane!” she said, “I admit that you have crippled the KCD 243 but your pathetic freighter is no match for my destroyer.”
Mike smiled as his blue eyes stared at her.
“It not me that you have to worry about but the attack cruiser that is directly behind you with a spinal mounted particle accelerator cannon which is aimed at your engine core,” he said feeling like a man who held all the cards.
The Karduan bridge crew looked a little panicked at his announcement and the Second officer ran over to their sensor station for a quick look and then shook her head. She was thinking that the young human officer was bluffing.
“Captain Hope,” Collins said having earlier opened the communication channel so that the Star Wolf could listen in on their conversation.
A moment later the attack cruiser deactivated her stealth plating and could now be seen by the Karduan sensors.
“Madam, I suggest you listen to my young colleague and surrender as a particle hit at this range would blow your entire ship to kingdom come,” the old captain said his weathered face appearing in the upper corner of Mike’s main viewer.
The Ship Mistress’s face went from a pale blue to a darker medium shade of blue as she fought her anger.
“Terms?” she asked after a minute of contemplating her hopeless situation
“Lt. Collins, would you like to answer this question,” Hope asked as he took a sip of coffee from a mug with the Harpers Military Academy logo on it.
“Aye sir,” he said and looked down to the main view screen and the face of the stewing Karduan officer.
“You and your crew, except for your Second, will man your escape pods and jettison out into space. We will pick up your pods after we have secured your ship. You and your crew will be well treated and taken to a prison ship to wait out the rest of the war. If there is any deception, sabotage or attempts to destroy your ship then all of the life pods will be destroyed.”
The ship mistress nodded once and lowered her head in defeat.
“What about me?” the ship’s Second asked stepping closer to the view screen.
“It has been my experience that Karduan junior officers tend to value their lives more than their captain’s honor. So you will stay on board to ensure that no one has tampered with the ship or it’s systems,” Mike informed.
“You are well versed in our ways,” the Ship Mistress said and then looked up.
“Do you accept our terms?” Collins asked knowing that they had them but also having the experience to know that sometimes these Karduan ship mistresses preferred going out fighting.
The Blue commander took a deep breath and let out a hard sigh before she answered.
“Yes, we accept your terms,” she said still looking mad but also defeated. There was just no way she could survive a spinal strike to her engine core and still fight all three enemy ships.
Over the next few hours Karduan escape pods were launched and recovered by the shuttles from the Wolf and the Randori. The Cody was ordered to gather up survivors from the KCD 243. The Companion Destroyer had taken severe hull damage to her portside as well as to her bridge. Her engines were off line and her maneuver drives were badly damaged. She still had her bender drives but without hull plating or impulse engines she wasn’t go
ing anywhere.
The KD 137 was taken relatively intact and the Second officer was waiting at the airlock to greet them and turn over her ship. A boarding party was sent over from the Wolf to secure the ship and was quickly followed by a prize crew.
Lt. Martin Daily went over with the boarding party and found that the Ship Mistress had managed to wipe her ship’s main computer systems before she had jettisoned herself into space. This was not a real problem as he had brought along an operating program and a restart algorithm.
Again their past experience with Karduan procedures and ship operations gave them an advantage. Within hours a Confederation skeleton crew was manning the captured ship and had secured all stations. The Spider detached itself from the back of the Wolf and moved to KCD 243 to patch her hull as best she could. There was no illusion that they could get her under way on her own power but they wanted to stabilize her systems and patch her hull so that she could be placed under-tow.
They then would have the KD137 extend her bender field and tow her back to the Wolf’s Den. It wasn’t the first time they had done this but the trick was getting the repairs done quickly and not running into enemy ships on the way.
The Karduan crews were taken back on board the KD137 and placed in their own cargo bay for the journey. Martin had reprogrammed their security protocols locking them out of accessing any of their former computer systems.
The planetary government on Planter Four didn’t want trouble and though they knew that the Confederation ship was one of Earth’s warships they refused to aid them. They pointed out that they were neutral in this conflict and part of Delian League and were no longer part of the Confederation.
Captain Hope made a grim face and ordered the Star Wolf into orbit with their planet. He once more demanded that they give supplies to his Task Force or face the consequences. The Planter Four government refused until he shot down a quarter of their orbital satellites. These satellites aided them in weather forecasts, planetary communications and outer system detection. A second demonstration was not needed and the government of Planter Four quickly offered any aid to the Confederation ships that they might need including hull plating, general supplies and food.
Hope didn’t really need the supplies but wanted them to be angry enough to run to the enemy fleet and tell them what he had done. Guerre de Course - the Chase of War and for it to work you had to have someone chase you. It was also good target practice for his turret crews just in case their fire control systems went out and they would have to fire manually.
The captured Karduan destroyer KD137 was renamed the Imperial Privateer Ship or IPS Sheffield. Captain Hope made the announcement mentioning that it was being named after a WWII British cruiser that had helped chase down the German battleship Bismarck. The KCD 243 was left without a name until it could be repaired that is if it wasn’t scrapped for parts.
After two days their Task Force was ready to move. They would escort the captured prize ships half way back to the Wolf’s Den and then continue to their next target system - Arcadia Prime.
Making several rapid bends they failed to detect any enemy ships in the uninhabited systems they were briefly in. It didn’t mean that they weren’t there just that that Task Force stopped only long enough to recalibrate and reenter the gravity well to the next bend.
Captain Hope looked at the data coming in from their brief scans of these systems. He knew that in at least one of them had to have a hidden Vanguard sloop or a Karduan destroyer escort. These smaller, faster ships would be dispatched to report their sighting of the attack cruiser. Along with the reports coming in from the two human systems he already had entered and attacked, the enemy may be getting a picture of where they were. Taking a sip of his coffee he made a sour face not from his drink but from the prospects of their next bend.
“All ships refuel and I want status reports from all stations and ships,” he ordered as Commander Richards echoed his commands to the communication station.
Sitting back in his chair he again looked up at the viewer, which was currently displaying the system’s map. It showed all known enemy locations as well as the systems they had passed through marked in red or green. Hope rubbed the stubble of his chin and locked his jaw.
“Sir?” Commander Richards said seeing the determined look on the old warrior’s face.
“I want a captains call,” he said looking to his concerned first officer.
“I’ll set up a conference vid…” the XO started to say.
“No, I want them to come over to the Star Wolf,” Hope ordered and looked back up to the main holo screen that was the chessboard of his war.
Mike had wanted to take a fighter to go the meeting on the Star Wolf but instead chose to take the cargo shuttle that they called the Mover. Some stick time would have been nice but he wanted to check on a crewman and he felt that this was the best and least obvious way to do it.
Reaching the shuttle bay he quickly boarded the large cargo shuttle and moved through the ship to the pilot’s cabin. There he found Lt. Thornton sitting in the co-pilot’s seat half grumbling to himself about having to fly a crate like this.
Mike quickly sat down in the pilot seat next to him and started his prelaunch checks. Thornton’s face showed his surprise at seeing the Randori’s captain taking the pilot’s chair.
“Lt. Collins, I didn’t know you were piloting this flight,” he said and added, “then again I didn’t know I was taking this flight until ten minutes ago.”
“No worries, I have to go to a meeting and I thought we could fly over together,” Mike said as he began the start up sequence.
James Thornton frowned, “I know you’re a pilot and checked out on fighters, so why take a shuttle over to the Wolf?”
Collins forced a smile and came clean with him.
“I wanted to see how things are going for you under my command and I didn’t want anyone else to know about it.”
Lt. Thornton continued to frown as he looked down to the controls and finished his preflight checks.
“I’m doing great,” he said sounding sincere.
“No, problems?” Mike asked.
Thornton let out a huff and turned from the controls to look at him.
“Is this about me questioning your orders about turning the ship?”
Mike shook his head, “No, you should question orders and point out other options that is part of your job. I’m just checking on you as both your commanding officer and as a friend that things are going all right.”
A moment of silence followed.
“Thanks and things are good, really,” Lt. Thornton said breaking the silence and his mood.
“Good, so take the con’s controls and get me over to the Star Wolf.”
“Aye, aye, sir,” he said as he piloted the cargo shuttle to waiting attack cruiser.
The ISS Star Wolf was much the way he remembered her and part of him wished he was still her third officer. Back then he was a bridge officer, raid team leader and a fighter pilot. Now he had the worries of an entire ship and its crew on his shoulders as well as his role in their Task Force’s mission. If he screwed up it wasn’t just his life that he could lose but those of his ship and their small squadron.
They had docked in the cargo bay and Mike told Thornton to go get some chow as the Wolf had one of the best chefs in the system. CPO Pauly was one of their gray wolf veterans. He had retired from navy years ago and had been a chef for years at one of Austro Prime’s best upscale restaurants. When his veteran club’s members decided to aid in the mission to steal the Star Wolf he joined them both as a gunnery mate and also as their chef. So once more he found himself cooking but this time not for the rich and their money but for his grateful fellow crewmembers and friends.
Mike wished he could have joined him as meals on the Randori were rather bland. Duty called and he had a meeting to go to, and then if time permitted he had a certain young French doctor he had to see.
Moving through the corridors he saw the
faces of many of his friends and those of the prize crews who he barely knew. The halls still had lots of extra supplies but not as much as before as they had been used to patch the enemy ships they had already taken.
They had been lucky so far and damage to their ships had been minimal. It was in part due to Captain Hope’s audacious plan to hit the enemy and draw them out. The other thing that helped was that the Fleet Mistress of the Karduan squadron made a mistake spreading her forces throughout the sector to try and detect the whereabouts of the Wolf.
Heading for the lift to take it up to the Captain’s day room, he turned a corner and almost walked into Martin Daily.
“Mike! Here for the meeting?” his old friend and fellow Harpers Academy classmate said as he juggled with a box overflowing with computer parts.
“Yes, heading there right now,” Collins replied reaching out to steady the box so it wouldn’t fall.
“Thanks, so how’s life as a ship captain? Is Rufo driving you nuts yet?” Martin commented as he shifted some of the box’s contents.
“Surprisingly, Cappillo has been a great help as XO, though being a ship captain has been a little challenging I think I’m getting the hang of it.”
Lt. Daily smiled a knowing grin, “You were already a good leader before you took command. Remember, I was with you on the Alamo and the Mammoth.”
Collins shrugged and tried to ignore his praise as he looked into the box of parts.
“So what do they have you working on?”
Now it was Martin’s turn to fidget a little with his answer.
“Ah, you know the regular stuff,” he said not making eye contact with him.
“Come on give,” Mike said with a smile.
“Well, beside my normal duties I’ve been taking part in the interviews of the captured Karduan officers from the destroyer and companion destroyer we took.”
“And?” Mike prompted.
“And we haven’t gotten very much useful information yet but we’re just getting started,” Martin revealed.
“What about the box of parts?”
Wolf's Run: The Chase of War (Star Wolf Sqaudron Book 2) Page 10
