“Holy, there must be at least eight levels to the base,” Mike commented and added, “I would have guessed five levels from our time in their lifts.
“Will you look at that! They have at least a dozen hanger bays extending out from the main base,” Commander Hutton added pointing to the arms that were service tunnels to these bays.
“What do they have out there?” Mike wondered out loud.
“I would guess fighters and more support ships,” Hope commented and then pointed at two smaller corridors that went further out and suddenly stopped. “Look here, these look like they service planetary particle cannon’s gun stations.”
Daily looked at the old captain in amazement.
“How did you know that, sir?” he asked.
The old captain made a gruff face and then grinned.
“I tricked the Templar Commander into revealing more than he would have liked.”
Mike suddenly remembered what Gunny had once told him about never playing cards with the Captain. This thought made him smile.
“So what is in all of those bays?”
“These two have star fighters and lots of them,” Martin said highlighting the two bays in red for them to see.
“Type and number?” Hutton ordered curious being a skilled fighter pilot.
“Between the two bays they have a hundred fighters, including thirty-six SF-18 Hornets star fighters, forty SF-37 Firestone strike fighters complete with anti-ship missiles and twenty-four SB-41 Typhoon heavy star bombers equipped with short range heavy torpedoes,” Daily answered and paused waiting for them to clamor in excitement. Instead they were as silent as a winter’s day.
A moment later he got his stunned reaction.
“Mon Dieu!” Angelique exclaimed and asked, “What do they need so many fighters for just a little frozen moon?”
“That’s as many as a battle carrier would have,” Mike added thinking of his father who was the executive officer onboard the ISS Prometheus, a Titan Class battle carrier serving across the galaxy with the 40th Attack Fleet. He was the first officer of the massive ship and had once been its CAG or commander air group and flight leader.
“Some sort of unsinkable aircraft carrier,” Captain Hope commented and then explained as he looked upon their questioning faces. “During WWII the idea was to use an island or any other immovable landmass as an airstrip. Thus making it in principal an unsinkable aircraft carrier. Places like Taiwan, Malta, even England, as well numerous atolls and islands in South Pacific were made into such bases.”
“So if you can’t afford a carrier just hollow out an asteroid or moon and use it as a carrier base,” Hutton remarked.
“But why?” Angelique persisted.
“They must really want to protect something on that moon or in this system?” Daily said.
“What’s in the other ten bays?” Mike asked staring at the holo image of the base with its octopus like arms extending outward.
“Each one has a modern corvette fast attack ship in their bays,” Martin informed.
The corvette was larger than the sloop of war and slightly smaller than a frigate. They were traditional escort ships and patrol craft. Corvettes were built to be bend capable, fast and when armed with anti-ship torpedoes able to deliver a heavy punch. This class of ships had been used for centuries to augment various navies of the world. The 1854 version of the USS Constellation was the last sail version of such a class before the era of steam. The corvette continued to find a role in space navies and many starships versions were still made.
“That would give them thirteen starships altogether and a hundred star-fighters,” Collins commented absently.
“Plus those two planetary particle cannons,” Hutton added.
Hope didn’t look surprised and Mike noticed, “Sir, did you suspect something like this?”
“Yes, as soon as I saw those armored cruisers and that battle cruiser. I thought that they had to have screening and support ships somewhere nearby.”
“So what does this mean?” Martin asked.
“Did you find anything else of interest?” Hutton inquired.
There was a section of the base we couldn’t get into,” Daily reported highlighting the lowest level of the base. “It was on a closed security grid and nothing I could do in the time we had could get passed their lockouts. Hell, I couldn’t even find the front door let alone a back door!”
“So that’s what they are probably protecting but what is in there?” Cmdr. Hutton remarked still curious as to the need for such a force to guard a frozen moon in the middle of nowhere.
“It doesn’t matter as long as the Templars fight they can keep their secrets,” Captain Hope announced gruffly.
As the shuttle passengers got quietly lost in their own thoughts, Mike remembered something and reached into his pocket to retrieve a handkerchief. Sliding closer to his lady love he passed it to her.
“What is this?” she asked her French accent making beautiful music to his ears. “It has blood on it?”
“Yep, I wiped my carbon sword with it after the duel,” he said with a proud smile and added “It is for you!”
“I think I would prefer flowers or chocolates,” she replied with a lovely frown.
“You don’t understand,” he said “it is Templar blood, I thought that maybe you’d want to have a look at it?”
“I think I would still like flowers or chocolates, especially chocolates,” she replied leaning against him.
Mike made a mental note to find her some chocolates.
Sir Jacob was in his command center watching the armored shuttle escape into space.
“Gun crews do you have a target lock on the Confederation shuttle?” he asked of his fire control stations.
“Yes sir, we have a passive lock and are waiting for your orders to fire,” one of his knights replied.
“Good, standby,” the Preceptor of the station ordered.
He had to be sure before he fired. The combined Confederation ships would be hard to deal with if he had to destroy Captain Hope and his officers. They would lose that was certain as God was on their side but he had to be sure their secret was revealed before he took such a drastic action.
The door to his office opened and Sir James came rushing over to his desk.
“Well?” he demanded.
“They didn’t get through our security,” he announced.
“Are you sure?” the Knight Commander asked wanting further confirmation.
“Yes, they know about are extra ships and our fighter wings but the lab level wasn’t breeched,” Sir James said in relief.
Sir Jacob looked at the shuttle on the main viewer as it headed back to its attack cruiser. He was still considering destroying them just to be sure.
“Sir?” the Knight Templar said watching his Preceptor with caution.
The Knight Commander signed loudly, “Gun crews stand down. I repeat stand down. Let the Confederation shuttle return to its ship.”
Sir James eased his hand away from extension sword hoping all the while that his commander had not seen that he had moved his hand to his weapon.
“Go on little shuttle go back to your nest never knowing how close you came to destruction,” Sir Jacob commented with an odd laugh.
“Now what do we do?” the knight inquired.
The Preceptor smiled and slapped him on the shoulder.
“Why we do what all of us have been secretly hoping for - we go to war!”
Chapter Eight
Now with the full or at least better cooperation of the Templars, the 12th Defense Fleet was being repaired and refitted at a much faster rate. Getting the ships battle ready was the mission of all involved but it was sometimes slow work.
Six days had passed and the command center of ISS Agamemnon was again looking like a bridge. The Templars had a rather large quantity of repair droids that they used to service their ships rather than stationing more human personnel on their lonely Blue Rock. These droids along with
the ones the task force already had were busy repairing the defense fleets ships. This was combined with their ship crews who hurried with renewed spirit to get their ships back into fighting trim.
Captain Hope paced back and forth in front of his captain’s chair as he occasionally glanced up at the main viewer or to a nearby screen of one of the bridge’s various stations.
Commander Richards on the other hand was very busy coordinating with the ship commanders of the remaining ships of the 12th Defense Fleet and with the Templars ships that had deployed to aid them. Moving from the comm. station he once more noticed his elder captain moving about the bridge.
“Sir, is everything all right?” he asked in a normal voice as he approached him.
Hope stopped his pacing and looked as if he just realized what he had been doing.
“We’ve been here too long! The enemy’s pursuit force should be narrowing in on us or at the very least they should send a scout ship in to check this system,” he said revealing his worries.
“I don’t think they are ready yet,” Richards stated wondering if the old ships could fight their way back to Confederation lines without the help of the Templars ships or at least the Star Wolf.
“No, they need more time and we need to buy it for them,” the Hawk said his eyes looking up with a gleam to them.
Richards nodded almost knowing what he planned, “We take the Wolf out and draw the enemy away from this system like we did for the Wolf’s Den.”
“The Chase of War,” the ancient star-mariner said with a nod of his gray head.
“Your orders sir?” Commander Richards asked.
“Alert the Cody, Spider and the Randori to be prepared to leave in two hours,” he said reducing his task force down to just three fast ships.
“Aye sir, what about the fleet and the Templars?”
“I want a captains call and make sure the Templar Preceptor and his officers are included,” Hope grumbled almost positive that they will all bellyache at the Star Wolf and the other ships leaving.
“Yes sir,” Richards said turned away, stopped and turned back.
“Yes XO?” Hope asked seeing the expression on his face.
“Who do you plan to leave in charge?” he asked thinking that the Templars can’t be trusted and that some of the Defense Fleet captains were not only too green but that they were mostly Lt. Commanders. Whoever he placed in charge would have to be strong enough to lock horns with the Templar Knight Commander and force him into cooperation or at least into compliance.
Captain Hope smiled before he answered, “Why you of course.”
Cmdr. Richards swallowed hard, “Me?”
He had come a long way since being a washed out drunk in a broken down pirate bar. The Star Wolf and her crew of gray wolves and young pups had saved him and brought him back to the man he had once been. He was good as an executive officer and maybe he was ready to be a ship captain again but he really didn’t know if he was ready to be the commanding officer of a squadron of warships.
“Mark, you have been running this ship and this whole repair operation since we got here. You have been the officer that has gotten the 12th’s ships organized again and you are the man that has been the liaison with the Templars for help and supplies,” the Fleet Captain stated stepping closer to him.
“But sir…” the XO started.
“No buts, I don’t want to lose my number one but I need you to take command of the Agamemnon and get things ready. I have a feeling that we are going to need all of those ships as well as our Templar friends.”
“Yes sir, I’ll do my best,” the navy commander replied resolving himself to the new role he would have to fill.
“Good!” Hoped said and added “Don’t worry I’m going to make it perfectly clear to everyone that you are in charge.”
Cmdr. Mark Richards nodded in return as he quietly hoped that he could make it all happen the way they wanted.
Two hours later the Star Wolf, Randori and the Cody opened a bend in the gravity well and left the Blue Rock system and the Templar base behind them. The Spider was once more attached to the aft of the Star Wolf. Some people were even jokingly calling it the Wolf Spider as it was always riding on her back. Hope had briefly considered leaving the little repair ship with the fleet but in the end decided against it. The fleet now had plenty of repair droids, men and ships aiding them. Where the Wolf Squadron was going they wouldn’t have such assistance and that little brig of a ship would be all the repair help they’d have.
Once they were a few bends away they’d need to find some Karduan ships and get spotted. They would then continue on their original mission to penetrate deeper into enemy controlled territory causing as much havoc as possible.
Behind them they left the Blue Rock Templar base with its thirteen warships and one hundred fighters. They also left behind three of their task force’s ships – the New Orleans, Anarchy and the Liberty, along with the remaining ten ships of the 12th Defense Fleet. It was an impressive force all assembled but they needed a little more time and whole lot more cooperation. If she could, Star Wolf and her escort ships would at least get them that time.
The tiny Task Force passed through the system where they had crushed the Karduan ships guarding the bend to the Templar base. The broken hulls and slag remains of the three ships were still there and looked untouched from the battle just seven days earlier. Reentering the well the squadron headed back to its original course to push deeper into Karduan controlled space.
Once more the task force prepared to bend out moving to the gravity well while calculating its weakest point to exploit and use to bend through. Polarizing their hulls to the same frequency of the well they activated their bender drives and moved in to enter the bend.
The Cody once more took the lead as a Karduan built ship she hopefully would not be immediately fired upon. The Randori with its gun turrets retracted looked as harmless as any transport ship could. Last would come the attack cruiser. The Star Wolf’s stealth plating would be activated and even though she had lost some of her original plating they had been replaced with sections coated with TPA or Trans-Poly Aluminum. These replacements sections were still undetectable to the Blues as long as they didn’t have a human Maser system with them or weren’t at close range to their ship.
Entering the gravity well several things happened all at once. The Cody and Randori who were in staggered positions and far to the attack cruiser’s front as they slipped through and quickly disappeared into the bend. At almost the same time five Karduan ships emerged coming out of the gravity well. They appeared at extreme close range to the Star Wolf as the attack cruiser’s proximity alert alarms went off making the crew scramble.
“The bend has been aborted!” Lt. Dover called out from next to the helm station.
Since Commander Richards’ departure to take command of the 12th Defense Fleet the young former helmsman had found himself promoted to acting XO.
“Enemy ships to aft, port, starboard, and directly ahead,” the maser operator sang out
“Fire control, all weapons open fire!” Hope ordered. He knew that at this close of range even a Karduan ship’s sensors could detect them.
A moment later the Star Wolf’s three main turrets each with triple barreled particle cannons opened fire. At the same time her twelve fusion powered multi cannon turrets let loose in all directions. The Wolf’s missile batteries fired a moment after her energy turrets and the space around them was quickly full of energy blasts and outgoing missiles.
“Fire all torpedo tubes and launch fighters!” the Hawk commanded still sitting in his command chair.
“Rerouting power from bender drives to the main gun,” Dover announced leaning down and working the helm controls next to the seated helmsman.
The Wolf’s main viewer zoomed in on the ship directly in front of them and it was a Karduan battle destroyer.
Hope leaned forward in his seat, “Mr. Dover we need the main gun right now.”
&nbs
p; “Working on it, sir,” Alistair called back as he aided the pilot.
The Squadron Mistress Di-Jac was bored and disappointed that they had been pulled from front line duties to assist in mop up operations in this sector. They had been ordered to reinforce two other squadrons under the command Grand Fleet Mistress Pir-Ly of the House of Win. She was an older woman and was revered by both the common people and many on the High Council. Her tactical and strategic planning had help defeat four of the other houses in the Karduan Internal Conflict and she had been instrumental in the breakthrough of the human’s front lines.
What worried her was that Grand Fleet Mistress hadn’t commanded a fleet in some time. She was a strategic planner and it had been several years since she had led ships in battle.
Di-Jac fears had been partially confirmed when she had finally rendezvoused with the Grand Mistress’s ships. The great lady’s two squadrons had already failed in their mission and had allowed a single attack cruiser and a mere modified transport ship to trick her and out maneuver her. This embarrassment had come with a cost and she had lost five of her ships including a battle destroyer. The human ships had escaped and were now deeper into their territory attacking unsuspecting picket ships that were guarding key locations and subjugating defiant worlds.
The Grand Mistress was happy for the reinforcement and had split her forces into three groups to hunt the enemy down. Their mission was to find the human cruiser and any escort ships, trap and destroy them. At the very least once they were found they were to hold them in place by cutting off any gravity wells escape routes and then send a ship to bring the rest of the fleet to aid them. No heroics or seeking of glory that which ever Karduan Ship Mistress would want. The Grand Fleet Mistress stressed that the enemy was too dangerous.
Squadron Mistress Di-Jac felt that the grand lady was too old to be heading such a hunt let alone being in command of a fleet of ships. Nevertheless, she followed her orders and searched the sectors she had been ordered to patrol. To her joy she had found evidence of the enemy’s advance. At several systems they found sites where Karduan ships had been vanquished.
Wolf's Run: The Chase of War (Star Wolf Sqaudron Book 2) Page 28
