Heart of Steel: Book II of the Jonathan Pavel Series

by J. S. Hawn

  “Skipper were pushing closer and closer to the red line with all these burns I don't know how much longer she’s gonna hold.”

  “Is the retrofit holding though Mr. Okai?” Jonathan asked.

  “Aye sir, but by her fingernails if anything,” Okai said

  “Do what you have to keep her together Mr. Okai. She's only got to make one more hard burn after this.”

  “Aye sir, we’ll do our best,” Okai said.

  The retrofit apparently held because there was no reactor meltdown or cascading power failure which crippled the ship.

  Once Fury had sufficiently slowed she moved to just above the debris field. Mindful of how he had caught the Colonial raiders in Casaopia Jonathan kept Fury close enough to mask the lidar readings.

  All that was left to do was wait, but they didn't have to wait long. Forty minutes later both the signatures of Cronus and Prime emerged from the other side of Uffern. Fifteen minutes later, the Colonial battle cruiser designated as Tango-1 came out as well. Jonathan looked at Fury’s rate of drift and the course of Tango-1 and smiled.

  “Well done Mr. Tang, you threaded the needle perfectly,” Jonathan said.

  “I do what I can sir.” he replied.

  Fury was orbiting the planet counter to Tango-1’s course and in thirty minutes they would pass each other, and Fury would be within a few kilometers of Tango-1’s baffles. Lidars were in many ways miraculous technology, but they did have their weaknesses and one of those was a ship's engines. The flare of plasma from nuclear exhaust created a blind spot directly behind the ship, the bigger the ship the bigger the blind spot. Some navies like Solaria had invested in expensive tech to help mitigate this the Y-Band lidar array. All Solarian vessels carried it, but it didn’t eliminate the blind spot just it reduced it. The Y-Band, though, was a hotly debated investment even in the Solarian Navy. It was cumbersome, riddled with glitches, and a power hog. The designers at Burlington Applied Systems, where Tango-1 and the other Brixton class battle cruisers had been developed and built, were noted detractors of Y-Band technology. In fact, the designs that came out of that yard’s entire sensor suit were notoriously underpowered. According to Jane’s and Bosun Knowles, there was an 85% chance that Tango-1 suffered from the same deficiencies. The problem was the Colonials were notoriously tech happy and would have probably invested in upgrading the capabilities. Jonathan was banking on the fact that with war coming so quickly the Colonials had not had time to modify and upgrade their purchased hulls, and had to use out of the box versions. If he was right, they would soon be behind the ship. If he was wrong, they’d all be dead.

  “Go to Quiet-II,” Jonathan said.

  “Aye sir,” Elman said leaning into the com, “All hands we are at condition Quiet-II,” as he said it the lights dimmed.

  At condition Quiet-II all non essential systems powered down, only the bare minimum of life support, and the main reactor remained online. Fury was marked by the debris, but it never hurt to be overly cautious.

  Time passed, everyone sat motionless. No one talked and people did their best not to breathe.

  So when Elman cried out, it caused everyone on the bridge to jump.

  “Sir, it worked! We’re in her baffles.”

  “Right battle stations. Let's go get her,” Jonathan said.

  At Jonathan's command, Fury fired up her engines and brought her life systems online. She began to close on Tango-1 at a steady rate.

  “Time to range?” Jonathan asked.

  “Twenty minutes sir,” Elman said from his station.

  Jonathan watched as the range ticked down closer, closer, closer, and still Tango-1 gave no indication she had seen them as she continued burning after the other Solarian ships, never looking back.

  ‘My God,’ Jonathan thought. ‘This could fucking work.’

  Jonathan wasn't wrong about that. What he didn't know was that his estimation of the battle cruiser’s sensor suite was far greater than its actual ability. Warships usually took between eight months and three years to build depending on class and complexity. The Colonials had been able to get there hands on a large quantity of ETO built vessels so quickly due in no small part to the eccentricities of the confusing quagmire of bureaucratic fiefdoms and regulations that governed the Earth Treaty Organization. This vague ETO law was a holdover from previous regimes that had governed the Core world and mandated that shipyards always construct 30% more military vessels, at a generous subsidization and tax deduction, than were ordered. Supposedly, this was a strategic reserve for the Core world’s fleet. However, these ‘reserved’ ships could be sold to private buyers, nations, corporations, even private citizens. It was from this stockpile that the Colonials had placed their sizable order of close to 100 vessels ranging from Frigates to six Brixton class Battle Cruisers. In the interest of filling this large and lucrative order for the Colonial navy, the ETO shipyards had cut corners. One of the trade offs of being able to sell off surplus and stockpiled warships was that those vessels had to be down graded, so as not to pose a threat to ETO security. This meant, while sitting in stockpile, most private vessels had fewer weapons, fewer kinetic barriers and less comprehensive electronic warfare systems. Only the hull and powerplant were on par with their sister ships in service with the ETO fleet. Obviously, when the client was another nation state the shipyards were authorized to upgrade the systems to military levels. However, in the interest of expediency, the ETO ship builders had only upgraded the weapon systems of the Brixton class neglecting the sensor systems. In all honesty, the current slap dash sensor systems the Colonial battle cruiser had were inferior to those on some freighters. The Colonial fleet knew about these deficiencies, but there hadn't been time to correct them. The Fierté du Peuple, as a result, was quite blind both fore and aft. Her crew believed that all three enemy vessels were in front of them up until it was too late.

  Jonathan watched as the ranged ticked down further and further.

  “Stand by forward batteries. At my signal, fire rail guns right up their tailpipe. When she rolls, unleash missiles and torpedos and plasma. Helmsman keep us on a straight course. We can't beat this beast in a straight up fight, so keep our profile as narrow as possible,” Jonathan said.

  The tense silence resumed as the range ticked down closer and closer.

  “Sir, if we wait much longer we’re going to be in their exhaust,” Elman said.

  Jonathan smiled, “Wait for it Mr. Elman.”

  What Jonathan was waiting for finally occurred. One of the Colonial spacers at the Fierté sensor station noticed a shadow playing across the rear of the vessel. With his supervising Noncom’s permission, he redirected one of the arrays to directly astern and boosted it to full power. This created a ping, and when he did that the shadow resolved into the fuzzy outline of a ship. The Colonial technician practically jumped out of his chair when he saw it.

  On Fury’s bridge Heath cried out, “Sir, they’ve pinged us!”

  “Fire rail guns,” Jonathan said.

  At Jonathan's command, Fury’s four rail guns fired propelling their two meter depleted uranium slugs toward the Fierté’s tail. The Solarian gunners had had ample time to calibrate their weapons, so when they fired the slugs they flew straight and true at .5c, nearly half the speed of light. They passed through the superheated plasma of Fierté’s exhaust without being bothered by it in the least, except to have their surface superheated and irradiated. Three slugs then smashed through Fierté’s main exhaust port, which lacked armor or shielding. They proceeded into the main engine room where they crashed into two of Fierté’s fission reactors setting off a chain of internal explosions and causing both reactors to begin to melt down. The fourth slug through a stroke of bizarre luck that is so often seen in battle, flew straight and true through the engine room without touching anything and wasting any of its energy. It flew down the main corridor, which connected the engine room to the rest of the ship, passing through three blast doors as if they were paper. The slug exp
ended itself when it hit the primary power relay, which was suppose to distribute the power from the engine room throughout the ship. The explosion tore through Fierté’s hull gutting her internally and leaving her rear weapons disabled. All told, Fury’s first volley had destroyed two of Fierté’s three reactors leaving only her forward auxiliary reactor functioning. Of Fierté’s 1,800 crew, over four hundred were killed in the initial blast including 80% of the engineering staff. These were the people who could stop the reactors, which were now going critical, from melting down.

  Even as Fury fired her first volley, Fierté had begun to roll to engage the new contact on her tail. Her maneuver rockets fired a few seconds after the final slug expended itself on her power relay. The resulting damage to her electrical systems left her steering badly mauled, and she began to spin as she turned presenting a wider profile to Fury, but also bringing her still functioning forward weapons to bear.

  “Fire all weapons,” Jonathan ordered. Even as he said it, Fury’s three forward torpedo batteries, plasma cannons and twelve Menace missile pods cut loose. Normally, torpedos and missiles were used against installations like space stations or ground installations or small ships like frigates. Bigger vessel’s kinetic barriers and point defense systems make it hard to score an effective hit. With her reactors wrecked and her primary power junction out of action, when Fierté’s crew tried to bring up her kinetic barriers they flickered and died and her point defense systems failed to come online. As a result, all twelve of Fury’s missiles and her three torpedos impacted Fierté just forward of her main engines. Her thick armor helped to mitigate the damage, but all of her top armaments aft of midship were now out of action, and almost a third of her hull was open to vacuum.

  Still, her bridge remained undamaged and with it her primary fire control. Fierté’s forward battery consisted of five turrets, each hosting two rail guns. Three sat on the top of the hull with the center one on a raised deck above the other two. Thus, as Fierté rolled and rotated she was able to bring three turrets to bear against Fury along with nine plasma cannons. However, with only her auxiliary reactor still online fully half the plasma cannons lacked the power to fire, and the massive damage threw off the ship's targeting array. When Fierté fired, only two of her plasma bolts and one slug found the mark. The heavy slug was powerful enough to pass through Fury’s weakened barrier and clip her port side hull. The armor managed to slow the slug enough, but it still took out three of Fury’s Plasma cannons and dealt serious damage.

  Jonathan felt the ship shake as the slug hit them.

  He opened his com, “Mr. Okai increase speed, leave nothing in the tank. Mr. Elman roll us on our starboard side, and bring all guns to bear fire as quickly as they can cycle.”

  Fury began to roll on her starboard side bringing all four of her turrets and her plasma cannons to bear. Per Jonathan's orders, the guns fired as quickly as their crew could reload them pouring plasma bolts and rail gun slugs into Fierté amidship as fast as they could.

  In the Fury’s primary engine room, Lt. Commander Orkai watched as the power levels spiked and the power relays began to go critical.

  ‘Shit,’ he thought. The retrofit they had installed was holding but barely, and all the extra strain on her power was putting a huge amount of stress on the system.

  Lt. Hilper’s face appeared on a monitor from her station in the forward engine room.

  “Sir are you seeing this?” she said her voice calm but serious.

  “I am lieutenant, suggestions?” Okai asked.

  “Sir we’ll be clear of the enemy ship in two minutes. At that point, we SCRAM the forward reactor and shut down everything except engines. Then we run the rear reactor at 125% capacity. That will give us enough momentum to get clear. Then we SCRAM the rear reactor and power back up the forward to run all other systems.”

  Okai looked at her. It was a mad plan, completely mad “Hold on..I” whatever Okai was going to say was lost as the coupling retrofit gave way and the Fury’s electrical systems pushed beyond capacity began to overload. Sparks flew from every console in the ship. Screens exploded and vital systems were fried, the lights flickered and died.

  As the cascade started, Lt. Hilper did two things. One was she redirected the power surge into a single one of Fury’s six buffers. This caused a serious explosion and arking electricity to shoot through the forward engine room, but it isolated the damage to a single buffer and kept the engine online. The second thing she did was initiate emergency shutdown of the forward reactor or SCRAM, which greatly reduced the amount of power in the system causing several more systems including all weapons systems to go offline, but kept the engines lit.

  Jonathan was plunged into the dark with everyone else as the power on the bridge died. Then he felt himself pressed against the chair as the blaring whine of the acceleration alarm sounded. The acceleration alarm was an analog piece of hardware hardwired to the ship's gravity systems. If those ever failed, it gave the crew a few precious seconds to brace themselves before full force of acceleration hit. Jonathan and every other crewman was pummeled by twelve gravities worth of acceleration. One by one they began blacking out. As they did, one of the ship's last emergency systems sensed the failure of the compensators and cut the engines while simultaneously firing the emergency declaration chemical rockets. This slowed the ship enough to keep the acceleration at 15 gravities, which was just below the level that was guaranteed to be fatal.

  Fury was now blind and helpless flying on a uncontrolled trajectory away from the Fierté. Had the Colonials fired at that moment, Fury would have been unable to stop them. Her kinetic barriers and point defense failing with the power shut down, but the Colonials couldn't fire. Fury had been taken to her physical limits, but she had done her job. Both of Fierté’s rear reactors went critical and exploded consuming the ship in a ball of fire. No one survived.

  Ahead of the battle, Cronus and Liberty Prime watched as Fury, her crew unconscious and her reactors shut down, was swallowed by the ball of plasma and debris. William Trendale wanted to turn around and help his friend with all his heart, but he obeyed the order he had been given. Cronus and Liberty Prime burned with full speed for the wormway. As they did so, Trendale consoled himself that Sound of Fury could have survived such an explosion, if she had been going fast enough, if she hadn't taken a direct hit from a piece of debris...if..if..if…

  Galt System, Tagert, Roark City

  Formerly the Western Reaches of the League now the Galt Freehold

  November 30th 844 AE

  Henry Francisco smiled as he walked back into the Presidential palace from the main balcony where he had just delivered a rousing speech to the assembled crowd outside, declaring the restoration of the Galt Freehold as an independant nation.

  “Quite the response,” Ames said looking out the window at the celebrating masses.

  Francisco motioned with his hand dismissing his aides and hanger ons.

  “How did you get in here?” Francisco asked.

  The creature had helped to convey him from Freeport back to Galt so he could lead the provisional government after the riots had broken out on Freeport, and the League military units had began shooting at each other. He hadn’t see the creature since landing at the spaceport a few days ago.

  The creature smiled. His elongated face seemed more uneven than before.

  “Why through the front door. I apologize for the delay, but I needed to pick up a package at the spaceport. It seems to have all come together quite nicely.”

  For some reason Francisco was beginning to feel uncomfortable. The hair on the back of his neck stood up. There was something off about the creature, something sinister. Without thinking, Francisco moved away from him.

  “Yes, I have to say I am impressed that the League crumbled so quickly. Of course it helped that a few radicals in the military had taken it on themselves to seize the local governments, which opposed supporting the Solarians. That was a happy coincidence.”

&nb
sp; The creature smiled and moved toward Francisco forcing Francisco to back away till he bumped into the ornate desk.

  “That was no coincidence Mr. Francisco it was the plan. Those officers, young fellows mostly all full of piss and vinegar, had been cultivated for years by the Solarian Office of Military Intelligence as an emergency stop gap against the League sliding into anarchy, or some other such problem. Those Solarians they do love to plan for the worst. All I needed to do was buy the names and codes off an underpaid, under appreciated mid level OMI officer and then initiate the operation. This led them to believe it was the OMI who was contacting them.” Ames laughed it was a dark laugh devoid of any actual humor.

  “It worked so well, and now it's time to tie up loose ends.”

  Francisco opened his mouth to ask what the creature meant, but Ames moved quickly his claws came out and he slashed open Francisco throat in one motion. Francisco fell to the floor trying to hold the wound close as his lifeblood drained out.

  Ames for his part walked back to the window and looked at the cheering crowds. He didn't turn around when the door opened but asked,

  “Are we secure Major?”

  The Major, a Commonwealth Operations Executive Section 12 Commando said, “Affirmative sir. All members of the Provisional Government are dead or in custody. The Freehold Government is decapitated.”