Captain John 1: A Galactic Coming of Age

by Krystyn Dean

  Promptly at ten hundred hours I entered the briefing room. Lieutenant Jenson said, “Attention on deck.” I said, “at ease everyone, sit down and let’s get started. Commander Nishimura, please begin.” Nishimura started with the video clips of the facility and then explained how the mining and ship building facility worked together. He concentrated on the security and the sensor net system they had in place. When he was finished I said, “We need to neutralize the facility. That is where the threat comes from. What are our options?”

  There were a lot of comments, but with the quality of the sensor package and the potential threat of a powerful armada of ships we made little headway.

  We would have to surprise them and yet the sensor net was far too sensitive for us to get close enough to do any damage. It seemed that the only option might be to wait for more ships. After what seemed like hours, Captain Morin McCreary, skipper of the battleship San Francisco said, “I am not as experienced as most of you so please forgive me if this crazy idea is impossible, but what if we didn’t attack the facility directly. What if, instead, we used our Corvettes to attach several of the new mines we have to some of the ore that is waiting to be taken to the processing furnaces. The staging area is outside the sensor net for obvious reasons. Keeping up with all of the activity out there would be a nightmare. And why defend rocks anyway. If even one of the antimatter mines goes off in one of those furnaces, the reaction would be devastating and could cripple the entire facility, including the waiting ships. At the very least it would lead to a lot of disorganization and panic.”

  There was silence for just a few seconds before Fritz Baker said, “That sounds like a good idea Mac, but how are we going to arm the mines? We can’t arm them while they are attached to the ore, they will go off the second we do?” Mac said, “We don’t have to arm them. Within seconds of going into the oven the magnetic bottle holding the antimatter will fail and the antimatter will react with all of the matter in the oven. The resulting explosion should be epic.” The result was that all captains agreed with Macs plan so I put him in charge of, what we were calling, Operation “Epic Explosion”.

  Three days later, with a course put together by Commander Nishimura, five Corvettes set out. The plan was simple enough. The sensor net did not cover the staging area where the robotic probes assembled the loads for the space tugs. The Corvettes would penetrate the staging area and place at least one mine on each load. Simple? Maybe, but those Corvette crews had to have a set of balls second to none.

  It took the better part of six days for the Corvettes to implement “Epic Explosion”. It went well, but now we had to wait. It didn’t take long. At about eleven hundred hours the day after the Corvettes returned One oven exploded with terrifying force and then the rest of the ovens followed suit when the containment fields for the ovens collapsed. The resulting domino effect was even more violent than we had thought. There was virtually nothing left of the facility. The ships under construction were blown to bits. The Binesla class and Erulsan-class ships that appeared to be waiting sustained damage that would take months to repair. Most crews abandoned ship. The only thing left were the fifteen Narauder class ships around the perimeter. They fought hard, but were not a match for our Ultron class ships. All were either destroyed or damaged to the point the crews abandoned ship.

  What remained now was the planetary defenses around Grenusia. Our Ultron battleships, with backup from our destroyers, were assigned the battle stations. They were able to jump in and do some heavy damage and jump out before the battle station could adjust its firing pattern. Without the moveable aide of their Binesla class and Erulsan-class ships they were sitting ducks. The smaller weapons platforms were all automated and we took them out with kinetic rounds. We chose not to use kinetic rounds on the Battle stations. The battle stations were manned and if we could convince the crew to abandon ship we could spare some lives.

  The picket ships were virtually helpless and surrendered without a shot being fired. We had attacked and captured and entire system without having lost one ship.

  That was soon to change.

  “Admiral”, said Gomez, “sensor report thirty ships dropping out of FTL about two hundred and fifty million kilometers out. They are fast movers and of a type we have never encountered before.” “Alright Mr. Gomez, can you give me an ETA?” Gomez said, “they have just accelerated to .25 C sir, estimated ETA just over nine hours.” “Very well Mr. Gomez.” “Mr. Allan open a channel to all ships.” “Channel is open sir, go ahead.” All ships, this is Admiral Anderson speaking. It seems we have company. They are of a type we have not seen before, and I am pretty certain they are not friendlies. We have about nine hours to prepare to greet this new fleet. We outnumber them a bit, but not much. We have no idea how they are armed, but rest assured they could not have better trained, smarter and tougher crews than we have right here in our fleet.”

  “Whoever they are, they are about to find out what a mistake they have made by taking on the finest fighters in the galaxy. You have my complete confidence. With your skills I rest assured we shall prevail, even though the battle may be mighty.” “All Captains, meet me on the neural net. We need to plan our welcome.”

  Six hours later we had done all we could do. There is no element of surprise. The incoming fleet is not using stealth and we are pretty certain that these thirty ships are all there is. No one lurking about to ambush us. Either the newcomers do not have stealth technology or, what is more likely, they are arrogant enough to feel they don’t need it. Whatever their reasoning, we are working at a bit of a disadvantage. They are definitely the aggressors. We can only react to their tactics. The incoming fleet has slowed to a reasonable attack speed and has spread out to form in to an inverted disk. This is a formation we saw earlier in the battle at Necho.

  Unfortunately, we will be unable to apply the same tactics we employed there. This is going to be a toe to toe, winner take all, slug fest. I had ordered the Corvettes to use stealth, do a combat jump two million kilometers directly toward the incoming fleet. Spread all of the Anti-matter mines we had left and the get the hell out of the system. They would be nothing more than cannon fodder if they stay. The Corvettes had orders to get back to an FTL beacon and report what was happening here. It would likely be too late for us if we needed help, but it was the best we could do. We had not dropped any FTL communication buoys for several systems because we didn’t want to inadvertently tip our hand before the attack and there hadn’t been time to do it since. There could not be any direct communications with Titan.

  I had Lieutenant Allan send a message in the blind requesting that the inbound fleet advise us of their intentions. There was no answer. It was OK, I was pretty sure I knew what they had in mind. I certainly hoped we would be able to make them reconsider.

  On Board the Jian Flagship Gorgon

  “Admiral Chozav,” Said Captain Prafefh whipping his tail in surprise. “These ships are of a different configuration than the ships the Humans have been using.” “Indeed, they are Prafefh, but I can’t imagine the Humans have developed anything that far reaching. They are, after all, new to space and even with the help of the Egolari there progress has to be limited.” Said Admiral Chozav.

  “It will be interesting to see their best efforts.” Replied Captain Prafefh. The navigator reported, “four million kilometers Captain.” “Very well” said Captain Prafefh, “slow to battle speed, all hands to battle stations. Open fire with the laser cannons at one million kilometers. We will see what these humans are made of.” Approximately two minutes later the Gorgon was rocked by a huge explosion. “What was that?” exclaimed Admiral Chozav. Captain Prafefh replied, “It appears we have entered a stealth-shielded mine field sir.” “Sensors find those mines.” The Captain ordered. “Use our point defense systems in the blind, aim them directly in front of us to try to clear them out.” “Admiral, fourteen ships are reporting damage. Eight of them are serious. They are going to have to reverse course
to make repairs prior to engaging the enemy. The other six ships report shield damage and some minor hull damage, they will continue with the attack.” Captain Prafefh, what kind of damage does the Gorgon have?” “We have damage to the forward shields, down to twenty percent. There is some hull damage, but all weapons are intact and we are ready to fight. Engineering feels certain they can get the forward shields up to ninety percent within ten minutes.”

  “So the humans draw first blood. Admirable, but they shall pay for that.” Said Admiral Chozav.

  Aboard the Excelsior

  “Admiral,” said Gomez. “Sensors show fourteen Eldirelian ships with damage, but only eight are showing serious damage. They are pulling out of formation and returning to the outer system. Probably for repairs. The damage to the rest of the ships is primarily to their shields, with some minor hull damage.”

  “Gomez, can you label those ships and mark where the hull damage is? We might be able to target those areas later.” “Yes sir, Admiral.” Gomez replied, “I will send those designations to all the ship in the fleet.”

  I turned to Fritz and said, “Well old friend, one more time. Shall we take it to them?” Fritz gave me the same answer he always gave me. “Let’s get it done.”

  All ships were in attack formation, the Ultron ships would form the initial attack group followed by the red and blue sections. We had better armor and weapons than the others so it made sense for us to be out front. We began our attack at nine hundred thousand kilometers. Our LPP cannons were not that accurate beyond that range so we waited. The enemy fleet began firing at one million kilometers, but their laser cannons were not really effective at that range. Although they got some hits, our shields didn’t even blink. Our LPP cannons, however, were very effective on their shields. We could see they were having a problem recovering.

  Their laser cannons were monsters and they began to take a toll. The Ultron Destroyer Zulu Warrior took a direct hit from one of their battle cruisers. She was venting atmosphere and drifting. She was still fighting, but her shields were down. Finally, Captain Cabrera gave the order to abandon ship. Shortly after the crew got safely off the Zulu Warrior, she took another laser cannon shot and exploded. Ultron Battle ship Beowulf was reporting shields at twenty percent with hull damage and weapons systems off line. I ordered her to jump out which she did. All Ultron ships were reporting some damage. The red and blue sections were fighting hard, but were down to just a few ships left.

  The cruiser, Anatoly Karpov, took a direct hit from a spread of missiles and exploded with all hands. Most of the non-Ultron ships had severe damage and had jumped out of the system or were drifting after the crews had abandoned ship. I don’t know who these bastards are, but they are some tough fighters.

  At this point the Sol/Fed Navy fleet was badly outnumbered and it was looking pretty grim. I started to order all ships to retreat when the Excelsior took a savage hit from one of those damn laser cannons. It shook the entire ship. I waited for a damage report, but heard nothing. Finally, Commander Estrada reached me on my neural implant. He said, “Admiral, the bridge took a direct hit, all controls are down. You will have to take control of the ship from the flag bridge.”

  I replied, “I’ve got it from here Commander, good luck down there.” I wanted to ask about Fritz, but this was not the time. “All right people, we have the con. I need a report on the shields.” Gomez said, “Our top side shields are down to about thirty percent. We need another ten minutes to reset and recharge. All other shields are running at one hundred percent.” I said, Lieutenant Turner, roll her up so her belly is exposed while the upper shields recharge.” Turner replied Aye sir, rolling now.” Gomez shouted, “Incoming, four missiles got through our point defense.” I steeled myself for the hit, it didn’t help. Smoke was flowing in to the flag bridge, alarm bells were screaming and people were down. The last thing I remember was Gomez shouting, “Thirty ships dropping out of FTL at one point eight million kilometers, ETA two minutes.” Crap, just what we need.

  On Board the Jian Flagship Gorgon

  Admiral Chozav said, “These humans are formidable fighters, and the progress they have made technically is amazing. We could have very well lost this battle, and these are the newest and best ships the Jian possess. If these humans had another year they would surpass even us.

  “That is a frightening thought.” Captain Prafefh agreed, “Admiral, the fight has been a worthy one. The humans deserve our respect, of that there is no doubt.” Admiral Chozav said, “look, that ship seems to be the command ship. Her upper shields are down and the captain is inverting his ship to get the belly shields up. OH… he almost made it. He has severe damage. Send someone in to finish him off. We need to destroy all ships in this fleet. These humans are too dangerous to leave armed.”

  Suddenly the sensor operator said, “Admiral Chozav, sensors report a flight of thirty ships matching the configuration of the ships we have been fighting just dropped out of FTL inside of two million kilometers. They will be here in two minutes.” Admiral Chozav turned to Captain Prafefh and said, “forget destroying the command ship get us out of here. We cannot defeat thirty more ships like that.” The Captain replied, “Admiral, we shall try, but they are very close. Navigation, get us out of here, best possible speed.”

  Aboard the inbound fleet to the Psi Unica System

  Admiral Miller had sent a stealth drone in to the Psi Unica System. The drone had done a snap jump into the system, recorded the ongoing battle and the positioning of all enemy ships and then had jumped back to the incoming fleet. With the information provided by the drone, every Ultron ship was given at least one target. The incoming human fleet jumped in to the Psi Unica System at a position two million kilometers from the battle. They were moving at flank speed.

  Every ship in the incoming fleet had a target and few of them missed. Within seconds almost every enemy ship in the system ceased to exist.

  Far outside the Psi Unica System

  Aboard a ship hidden in the outer reaches of the system. Draq Shandor turned to Strategaz Bespav. “We may have underestimated the Humans. Now we have a problem. We cannot allow the Federation supreme council to become aware of our use of the Eldirelians to destabilized the Federation. For the time being we will need to keep a low profile. The timing for our departure from the federation is not yet at hand.” Strategaz Bespav said, “Yes My Lord. We should curtail all efforts for the time being. We should leave them in place, but have them stay dormant for now. And we must place some spies into the human system. We keep getting surprised by what they come up with.” Draq Shandor said, “Be certain no Jiang ships survive. There is technology we do not want shared on those ships.” You know the universal destruct codes, use them on any Jiang ships that appear they might survive the battle.” Strategaz Bespav said, “And the crews?” “Destroy the escape capsules as well.” said Draq Shandor.

  Aboard the Jian Flagship Gorgon

  “Admiral Chozav, are you alright?” asked Captain Prafefh. “I was just out for a moment Captain. What is our status?” “I am sorry Admiral, but we took heavy damage. We were targeted with so many missiles the shields couldn’t handle them. I have gotten everyone off the ship, it is just the bridge crew remaining. We must abandon ship.” “Of course, Captain, go ahead, set the self-destruct sequence and let us leave.” The self-destruct has been set sir, I will activate it as our escape pods separate from the ship. Please hurry sir, we must go.”

  As the last escape pod separated from the Gorgon, Captain Prafefh activated the Gorgons self-destruct sequence.

  At just that moment the universal self-destruct sequence was sent to the Gorgon by Strategaz Bespav. Bespav then sent the destruct signal to all surviving escape pods. Within the Gorgons’ computer system, the two competing self-destruct processes resulted in a regressive looping of issued and countermanded instructions by the competing self-destruct processes which continued until the system, sensing a problem deleted both self-destr
uct processes to allow the operator to insert a new instruction.

  The ship hidden in the outer reaches of the system departed immediately. Draq Shandor failed to realize one Jian ship had failed to destruct.

  Admiral Chozav and Captain Prafefh never knew, their ship had not been destroyed.

  With Admiral Anderson Aboard the Excelsior

  I slowly began to sense light, and murmuring voices in the background. I thought I was dreaming. As I opened my eyes I was certain of it. Peering down into my face was none other than Admiral Miller. I closed my eyes and said. “I know I am not in heaven, I expected to wake up seeing the face of God, and low and behold that mug looks just like Admiral Miller. I must have gone down instead of up.”

  Admiral Miller said, “It’s about time you woke up; you sorry gold bricking slacker.” I tried to sit up and DR. Barton pushed me back down. She said, “Admiral, you have a severe concussion. You have been out for three days. You just need to rest for a while.” I asked, “What about Fritz, how is he?” Admiral Miller looked at Dr. Barton. She nodded and Admiral Miller said, “I’m sorry John, Fritz didn’t make it. The Excelsior took a direct hit to the bridge. The only survivor was Commander Estrada.”

  Three days later in Orbit around Grenushania