by Tori Harris
“We were, of course, hopeful that our new shield systems would prove effective against whatever those battleships could throw our way, but it turns out that there was something about these projectiles that proved more than they could handle. So far, we have no idea whether the problem was related to the shells’ size, shape, composition … we just don’t know yet. The Science and Engineering Directorate is working on discovering the source of the vulnerability, as well as hardening our shield emitters in response to the area denial pods encountered by the Theseus and her fighters at Location Dagger. More on that in a moment.
“I have one more important item to note about the battle at Location Crossbow. After the attack on the battleships was unsuccessful, Captain Abrams saw that his remaining damaged destroyer was unable to C-Jump, but was attempting to clear the combat area at its best possible speed using its sublight engines. Three Resistance Gresav-class destroyers gave chase, and were so intent on intercepting our ship that they presented him with another opportunity to exploit their aft shield vulnerability. Captain Abrams had the foresight to put two of his ships in flanking positions on either side of the damaged ship — ‘sweetening the deal,’ you might say — and making it less likely that the enemy destroyers would break off their run before they themselves could be attacked from astern.
“His tactics were sound, his decision-making was swift, and his execution was flawless, resulting in the destruction of two of the enemy task force’s newest and most powerful warships, as well as the rescue of TFS Aeneas. There is much that I don’t know about how the Resistance plans to conduct its attack once they arrive in system. What I do know, however, is that decisive, smart action like this is exactly what it takes to win battles, regardless of the size of your enemy’s fleet or the sophistication of their weapons. Hooyah?”
“Hooyah!” came the enthusiastic, congratulatory response from the admiral’s remote audience.
“There is no doubt that Captain Abrams faced a couple of tough calls, but the important thing for us to recognize is that he took action — executing the best plan he could put together quickly using the information he had available at the time. Although his attack on the Rusalov battleships ultimately proved ineffective and costly, I can’t fault him for anything he did. If I had been in his place, I only hope I would have had the fortitude to do the same thing.
“Any further questions on either portion of the battle at Location Crossbow?” Patterson asked, knowing full well that his previous statement had rendered any additional comments extremely unlikely.
Marine Rescue Flight 901, Location Dagger
(3.3 light years from Earth)
“Marine Rescue Flight niner zero one, Theseus Flight Ops. Clamps released. Expected flight time to the Keturah is zero six minutes,” the controller announced over the secure tactical comm channel used by First Lieutenant Jacks and his squad of fourteen spec-ops Marines.
“Niner zero one acknowledged,” Jacks replied absently, still heavily engaged in the process of preparing for a mission that had commenced with virtually no warning and at least a couple of hours earlier than he had anticipated.
Anytime Theseus was engaged in combat operations — and even when she wasn’t, for that matter — at least one of her three Marine squads was on alert and prepared to go into action at a moment’s notice. At this particular moment, however, some of the platoon’s most important equipment was not. With the ship hurrying to conclude its recovery of the fourth damaged F-373, her aft flight deck and hangar bay were in a state of organized chaos. Although she was capable in her own right as a platform for conducting various forms of naval aviation, Theseus was no carrier. Her standard complement of twenty-four Hunter RPSVs (which were surprisingly compact in their stowed configuration), four Gurkha, and two Sherpa ASVs took up very nearly all of her available space.
This morning’s battle with Resistance forces had reduced the destroyer’s complement of Hunter RPSVs by six, freeing up a significant amount of room in the hangar bay. Shortly thereafter, however, all of that space and more had been taken up by three of the much larger F-373 fighters — with a fourth about to be brought onboard within the next half-hour. As a result, when the order had come down to prepare for an immediate launch and begin providing assistance to the Resistance cruiser Keturah, the status of all four of the Marines’ Gurkha assault shuttles had been listed as “occluded.”
Upon further investigation, Jacks had found that all four of his ships were so severely boxed in by equipment and other spacecraft that they were not even in a position to take on the required cargo of relief supplies, let alone be relocated to the flight apron for launch. Even after an impassioned plea to the on-duty spacecraft director, it seemed that there was simply nothing that could be done to quickly extricate the heavily armed and armored Gurkhas within the required launch window specified by the XO. So, rather than waste any additional time, not to mention his own credibility, by taking up the matter with Commander Reynolds, Jacks had acquiesced and instead had the two Sherpas loaded and prepped for immediate launch.
“Listen up, Marines,” he said, having just finished compiling enough information to provide at least some semblance of an adequate mission brief. “I’ll take the hit for getting our rides stuck in the hangar bay. I assure you that it won’t happen again. In any event, we don’t have a lot of time, so let’s brief this up with a standard estimate of the situation.”
With only two Sherpas at their disposal and much of the shuttles’ cargo capacity being taken up by relief supplies, Jacks had room for only a single squad of Marines on the mission. As a result, his fourteen troops were divided into two sections of seven aboard each spacecraft. Fortunately, their “universal” combat EVA suits were designed with small unit tactics in mind, and their ability to communicate and seamlessly share information with each other as well as with friendly forces in the area amounted to a significant force multiplier. Now, as Lieutenant Jacks ran through his standard, METT-TC briefing, supporting visual aids and textual information were displayed within the fields of view of each member of his squad.
“Mission: the primary mission is to stabilize the situation aboard the Keturah to the maximum extent possible within the next six zero minutes. Even though we’re classified as a ‘rescue’ mission, that is not our objective at the moment. Using the information Commander Takkar provided, we will approach the cruiser’s four primary external access points at these locations.”
As Jacks spoke, a model of the Resistance BD cruiser appeared to hover in space before each of his troops, rotating and zooming in on each area of interest.
“The security system protecting each of these access points will issue a series of ‘challenge’ codes when you arrive in front of the door. Your suit’s AI has all of the data it needs to provide the correct response. Once that happens, you should have access not only to the door itself, but also a fair amount of general information regarding the status of that section of the ship. Unfortunately, the system is smart enough to recognize whether someone is actually prepared to enter once it opens the door, so it requires that you not only have the key, but also that you are in the immediate vicinity of the airlock before it will grant access. The access routine will kick off when you are within about three meters of the door. After that, the first thing your AI will do is attempt to determine if the section of the ship beyond the airlock is still pressurized. If so, proceed and attempt to deliver a portion of our relief supplies. If not, move on to the next access point. Again, we are not equipped to conduct rescue operations at this time, so regardless of what you find inside that ship, right now we are just here to help stabilize the situation and prevent further loss of life. Understood?”
Although questions of this type have traditionally been intended more to ensure that at least part of a commander’s audience was paying attention and were generally rhetorical in nature, this was no longer the case. Jacks paused momentarily as he waited for every member of his squad to mentally respond to the qu
estion — their understanding positively confirmed by their individual suit’s AI via its neural interface.
“Somebody slap Montaño,” Jacks said after noting that the Marine’s response, while indicating an adequate understanding of the mission, was thirty-seven percent slower than his personal average. Fifty meters away aboard shuttle niner zero two, Corporal Montaño’s closest neighbor happily complied, delivering a sharp blow to the side of his helmet with an open hand. “Very good,” Jacks said after allowing a few seconds for the cursing and accompanying laughter to subside.
“Enemy: the status of enemy troops aboard the Keturah is largely unknown. There has been no contact and very little power output from the ship since she took one of the Baldev’s anti-ship missiles by the stern and shortly thereafter jettisoned her reactor’s containment unit. Her normal complement is around four hundred. She’s what they refer to as a battlespace defense or BD cruiser, so most of her personnel are not combat troops. Most Sajeth Collective warships do, however, carry a small Marine security force with approximately three zero troops. Keep in mind that most of their personnel are Wek. From what we know about their species so far, you can count on them to be quick and resourceful in a scrap. Do not underestimate them, even if they’re not wearing any sort of combat armor.
“It is important for us to do everything we can to clearly communicate to any survivors we find that we are here to offer assistance. Even though we are in an active combat zone, we are not authorized to use lethal force unless they attempt to do so first. If that happens, listen closely for orders, but my expectation is that we will simply withdraw and return to the Theseus. As always, do not let your guard down.
“Troops: Initially, we will operate as a single squad to provide each other with fire support, if necessary. This is especially important on this mission since we do not have our Gurkhas’ AIs backing us up with their heavy weapons. Once again, we are conducting a relief mission, but the Keturah’s crew may not see things that way. Watch each other’s backs — particularly during ingress. The external access points and airlocks are large enough to accommodate our pallets of supplies, but still small enough to create a choke point if we find ourselves in a hostile situation. You will not — repeat will not — close the external airlock and proceed into the ship’s interior spaces without coordinating through me. And I don’t expect we’ll be in a position to do that unless we can make contact with members of the Keturah’s crew and receive credible assurance that they won’t attack us. If things are going well, I may decide to split us up into two sections to speed up delivery of our supplies, so listen up for instructions.
“Terrain: Commander Takkar provided schematics of the ship, so your AIs will be able to provide navigation in the unlikely event that we do end up proceeding farther than expected inside the ship. Remember your training, people. Always be alert for the ‘absence of the normal’ or the ‘presence of the abnormal.’ If you see something, sing out. Keeping something to yourself because you think it’s probably no big deal can very easily get us all killed.
“Time: As usual, time is short. Captain Prescott wants us to do everything we can to stabilize the situation within an hour of our arrival and then hightail it back to the Theseus. We are expecting two enemy battleships to arrive in the area shortly. They are being given orders via comm beacon from their commodore to avoid contact with our forces and depart the area immediately. After they’re gone, I’m sure we’ll be headed back to the Keturah to evacuate any survivors, so be thinking about what kinds of additional supplies and equipment we will need to bring with us when we return. If the enemy battleships happen to arrive while we are here … I suppose we’ll plan to shelter in place and request further instructions from Captain Prescott. Hey, it’s a Resistance warship, right? I figure we should be safer out here on the Keturah than we would be if we were back aboard the Theseus.
“Comm: Pretty standard ops for comms. Use your neural interface for most basic communications and keep radio chatter to a minimum. Our call sign is simply ‘Rescue 11.’ If I split us up into two sections, we’ll be ‘Rescue 11’ and ‘Rescue 12.’
“That’s it for now,” Jacks concluded. “Questions?”
The only response over the tactical comm was the sound of Lance Corporal Dario Montaño stifling a yawn.
“Jeez, Montaño,” Jacks chuckled, “you do realize that Master Sergeant Rios sees and hears everything you say and do, right?”
“Aw, come on, LT, this is a milk run. Surely he has something better to do than —”
“Top, how do you read?” Jacks interrupted.
“Five by five, Lieutenant,” his platoon sergeant responded without hesitation.
“Any other questions?” Jacks asked.
This time, there was absolute silence over the comm channel, and Lieutenant Jacks was gratified to see that a query of his squad’s physiological state showed that all fourteen of his troops were now fully alert and focused on the mission at hand.
Chapter 13
TFS Navajo, Earth-Sun Lagrange Point 2
(0845 UTC - Combat Information Center - 1.5x106 km from Earth)
Satisfied that his comments regarding Captain Abrams’ actions at Location Crossbow had prevented a round of unnecessary second-guessing from his audience, Admiral Patterson pressed on with his briefing.
“Captain Davis may have mentioned this earlier, but the shells fired by the Rusalovs’ main guns appear to have some guidance capabilities built in. They are extremely accurate at close range — certainly anything inside of one hundred thousand kilometers — and they’re also nuclear-tipped with an explosive yield several times that of their standard anti-ship missiles. Obviously, none of our ships are going to be able to stand up to that kind of firepower for long, so our goal is to find a way to take them out before they have the opportunity to make use of those weapons again. Fortunately, they’re not the only ones with big guns at their disposal,” he smiled.
Patterson waited a moment for the chorus of satisfied grunts and comments of approval from his audience to subside before continuing. “The Navajo’s AI is still working to formulate the most effective strategy for conducting an attack based on our order of battle, and you’ll have it as soon as it’s available. I suspect, however, that we will continue to focus on taking down their aft shields so that they become vulnerable to C-Drive-equipped missile strikes. That task will most likely fall primarily to our cruisers, but I would prefer to hold off on providing any additional details until our plans are finalized.
“I’d like to reiterate that the primary lesson learned from the battle at Location Crossbow is that we cannot allow shells from the Rusalovs’ main batteries to impact our hulls … to the extent that it’s possible to avoid it. For the purposes of the coming engagement, that applies equally to ships equipped with gravitic shielding since the shields have proven largely ineffective against these very large projectiles. Accordingly, your AIs will be configured to warn you of any incoming rounds, then force an emergency C-Jump, if necessary, to get you out of their way. Any questions on that, specifically?”
“Admiral,” Captain Davis spoke up from off-camera, “just to clarify, this AI tweak applies only to incoming shells fired by Rusalov-class battleships, correct?”
“That’s right. The two Baldev-class battleships we believe will also be headed our way do not appear to have kinetic energy weapons at all, and Theseus’ shields fared much better against their big energy cannons … at least until she got hit by the area denial weapon. Thank you, Captain Davis, that was a good segue. Does anyone else has any questions regarding the Rusalovs?”
Hearing none, Patterson continued. “This,” he said, gesturing to a rotating cylindrical device suspended above the holographic table, “is the Carrada Area Denial Weapon System. Although we don’t have much in the way of detailed information regarding its full capabilities, Commander Takkar did at least provide us with some basic specs. Each of these pods carries twelve kinetic energy interceptors. The
interceptors themselves are fired via an electromagnetic launcher not unlike what our railguns use. Thankfully — and whether this is due to inferior launcher design or limited onboard power, we don’t know — the interceptors do not achieve anything like the velocities our railgun projectiles reach. Based on what we have seen so far, we believe they travel at approximately 2.4 percent light. Just before impact, each one sets off a series of charges designed to distribute fragmentary submunitions along the flight path of its target. The pattern actually looks a bit like that of a traditional shotgun. And, just like a shotgun, it’s simple but damned effective.
“Two of these pods were responsible for thirty of the thirty-five fighters that were either damaged or destroyed at Location Dagger. Two other pods were able to hit Theseus so hard and so fast that her shields were completely overwhelmed. The good news is that the armor we use on our capital ships proved sufficient to absorb all of those impacts without any critical damage. Theseus took over thirty thousand hits, which is probably something close to a worst-case scenario since both pods hit her with all twelve of their interceptors. As you can imagine, she’s a mess, but she’s still in the fight. So I suppose we should all thank Captain Prescott and crew for graciously volunteering to test Science and Engineering’s latest armor tech … again.”
Patterson managed a pleasant but reserved grin as he waited a moment for the smattering of chuckles and commentary to subside. “Don’t get me wrong,” he said, his expression and tone quickly returning to its previous, rather solemn state, “I don’t mean to make light of these weapons, or anything else in the Sajeth Collective’s inventory, for that matter. While we are very thankful that there were no casualties aboard Theseus, let’s keep in mind that twenty-three of our pilots lost their lives to this same system. And, as far as our capital ships go, once all those fragments start hitting your hull, there’s almost no chance that enough shield emitters will survive to allow the shields to be brought back online. There’s also a good chance you could lose weapons mounts, gravitic field emitters, your comm array, or pretty much any other system with key components mounted on the hull.”
