Warpath

by Randolph Lalonde

  Several other standard anti-fighter and countermeasure turrets were built into the hull, some were computer controlled, while others were manned, but none of them were railgun systems. The purely mechanical turrets used a variable shell system, where the guns could dumb-fire if the power in the ship went out, and the shells could still serve many different purposes.

  The other directed electromagnetic pulse beam dome was on the bottom of the ship’s main section, along with torpedo and missile systems that required crewmembers to man stations between the launch decks of the hangars and the outer hull. The rear thrusters were spread across the aft section of the hull, above the hangars, and the new rectangular rotary thrusters sat above and behind them. They were heavily armoured, but also had their own shield emitters that assisted the rest of the ship, and a pair of automated point defence guns. They also enjoyed a little coverage from the armoured communications section that was designed to look like another bridge built off the rearmost portion of the dorsal section of the hull. There was a secondary communications system inside the neck of the vessel as well.

  Jake could see where crews were running basic tests on systems across the ship, and yellow dots marked where systems still had to be installed. There were dozens of dots throughout the main section of the vessel, and even more inside the new hangars under the left and right wings of the ship.

  He was thankful that the ship didn’t have rail guns when they faced it before, it could have changed the shape of their encounter entirely. Rail guns were bad enough, but the version he had installed used high explosive shells that spread the damage of the impact out significantly. Two hits from such a weapon would have slagged the Warlord.

  He was just starting to bring up the status tracking displays in front of the captain’s seat, a holographic scroll that he knew he’d be staring at for so long that he’d see it in his sleep, when Liara gently broke through his concentration. “Now that we’re under way and nothing’s fallen off, maybe you could do a ship wide?” she asked.

  “That’s a good idea, thank you,” Jake replied. “Engineering, are we ship shape?” he asked.

  “Aye, aye, Sir,” Finn replied.

  “Any problems coming up?” he asked the bridge in general, catching Frost’s eye. The man looked a little out of place in a fitted tactical uniform, but happier than Jake had seen him in years. All the stations from his right hand around to his left and behind all checked in green on his display. They were safely under way.

  “Well, then, ship wide announcement, please,” Jake said.

  “Your attention, please, for an announcement from the Captain of the Revenge,” Liara said. She turned and nodded to him.

  Jake didn’t have anything pre-planned, so he started his statement the way he was trained to in the Freeground Fleet so long before. “We have begun our first mission. The Revenge is currently in wormhole transit to our first waypoint. All critical systems are green. I am proud of every single one of you for pulling together as a crew and getting us into space. I am confident that our first mission will be remembered as one of the greatest efforts in what will be the long service of this ship. We will see combat, but not for several days at least, so get squared away, get used to your duties, and stand ready. I encourage all of you to take a moment when your duty shift ends today to record a message for someone at Haven Shore or somewhere within the reach of their communications system. All operational data will be deleted, so don’t talk about the state of the ship or our mission, or the message your loved one gets will be pretty short. It may be the last time you can send a message home for a long time. This is a great crew, look out for each other, follow the regulations, the directions of your superiors and you’ll learn more than you can imagine. I am already proud to be serving with you.”

  Chapter 38

  Jacob Valent and Minh-Chu Buu

  There were few personnel lifts on the Revenge, and the computer aboard restricted most crewmembers from taking them unless it was an emergency or they were late for a duty shift.

  This suited Jacob Valent fine. As the Captain, he could take the lifts whenever he liked, but he hadn’t tried one yet. The ship also had a set of bulk movers that carried heavy cargo along the first, fifth, twenty eighth, twenty third and fourteenth decks horizontally, and up and down between all decks. They ran along the broad service hallways that were core to the ship’s maintenance.

  Jake decided to take his first jog on deck twenty-eight, where the Solar Forge had created quite a surprise for everyone aboard. The track for the bulk movers, square flat bed cars that were several metres across, was opaque, but the decks around them could be mostly transparent with the touch of a button.

  The simple artificial intelligence saw fit to show him as soon as he arrived. His original reason for being there was that it was the only broad hallway that ran the full length of the ship, all three hundred thirty three metres, minus the hull thickness. It was perfect for he and Minh-Chu to have a jog on.

  “Now that’s something,” Minh-Chu said as he looked through the smoky transparent metal floor running alongside the bulk mover track. “I can see my fighter from here.” The whole main hangar bay was visible below. Jake and Minh-Chu could see that crews were already on shift, getting the ships into position so their only working fighter bay would be ready for use later that day.

  “It’ll take another week for the secondary bays to be ready, right now they’re storage for the rest of the fighter wing,” Jake said. “Ready to go, old man?”

  “Look who’s talking,” Minh-Chu said, breaking into a brisk jog. “If experience were age, you’d be twice as old.”

  Jake had no problem keeping up with him once he got moving, it was starting the run that he was uneasy with. His balance was still not as keen as he would have liked. The extra muscle he’d been given during the six weeks he’d spent in stasis served him well, and he had good endurance, but he needed to keep walking and running as much as he could. They settled in at a good pace, running side by side, and Jake started to realize how long the main access hall was. It was twice as tall as any other floor, and had room on the sides for storage beside the walkways. That space was filled with components that had to be installed on the ship, and supplies that hadn’t been moved to the right place due to time constraints. “So, did you check the report for the night shift?” Jake asked.

  “Yes, Agameg ended up balancing the power distribution for the ship while he was in the Captain’s chair. That one is a serious over achiever.”

  “Tell me about it, he got us down to using less than one percent of our output while we’re under power in a wormhole. I knew the fusion generators on this ship were good, but I would have never imagined they were that good.”

  “Yeah, I meant to ask you about something,” Minh-Chu said. “There’s no antimatter aboard anywhere, did the Warlord spook you off the stuff?”

  “That’s part of it,” Jake replied. “But antimatter also comes up on scans a lot faster than anything else, and we don’t have any real cloaking systems right now.”

  “That makes sense,” Minh-Chu said. “So the torpedoes you’re going to be using, if they’re not antimatter, what are they?”

  “Guided drillers, with high explosives. Only useful once a ship’s shields are down, and they take a little while to punch through the hull, but they make a big mess when they do.”

  “Nasty,” Minh-Chu said. “So, do you think there’s going to be a large need for fighters in the nebula?”

  “Bigger than ever. Our sensors are going to have limited range in dense areas, so we’re going to need to extend them using your fighters. That, and we’re going to be up against the real Order of Eden Fleet in there. If they’re after Freeground, there’s going to be a lot of them. The new gunships can do a lot of damage if they take something by surprise, especially if they’re each flanked by two Uriels. Mainly, though, we need your Fighter Wing because the Revenge is not a close combat carrier. She may have the armour, but her weapons ar
e made for long range, so your fighter wing will be the first line of defence.”

  “We have a lot of green pilots. I don’t know of I’d trust those nuggets to keep the enemy where you want them,” Minh-Chu said. They passed a group of five Crewmen in white and blue vacsuits. Each of them were low ranking Enlisted, Grade three or below, the morning duty shift was just starting.

  Jake replied once they were past them. “That’s why we’re going to have to rough it for the first while, take the Revenge closer than I’d like if your fighter screen doesn’t work out.”

  “It’ll work out,” Minh-Chu said. “As long as I’m out there flying with the right wingmen. The gunships are going to make a real difference too, they’ve got good survivability, are about as heavily armed as the average corvette class warship. With the right loadouts, and good pilots, they will be kings of the strike and fade attack.”

  “Exactly. The Revenge will be a great big fat target though, so your fighter squadron won’t get all the attention. The Clever Dream will play the role of scout, cloaked.”

  “What about the Triton?” Minh-Chu asked.

  “They’ll be thirty thousand klicks or more above or below,” Jake replied.

  “The Revenge will be the bait,” Minh-Chu said.

  “Our shields are good for it, and the Triton will hit them from out of nowhere,” Jake replied. “The problem is, you have to find a place to fit in with your fighters.”

  “Nah, we’ll run patrols, try to catch anything hiding on the outskirts of your sensor range. It’ll work out, you’ll see. Just get all my fighter bays working,” Minh-Chu said.

  “Yes, Sir, Wing Commander, Sir,” Jake replied. He wasn’t winded at all, so he followed the automated medical advisor’s advice and turned the resistance of his suit up five percent. With all his muscles working against the suit, he immediately felt like he was starting to get real exercise.

  “You know, the Rangers jog and do obstacles practically nude,” Minh-Chu said.

  “Yup, I’ve seen,” Jake said. “I’m a space combatant, everyone on this ship is. We should be used to wearing vacsuits at all times.”

  “Old Freeground Fleet doctrine,” Minh-Chu said. “I agree, but I have to admit, the Ranger outfits are something else. Have you seen the Ranger ladies jogging around Haven Shore?”

  “My daughter’s a Ranger,” Jake replied, more to put Minh-Chu on the spot than to object to his statement.

  “They look very athletic, warrior like, even,” Minh-Chu said, backpedalling with a chuckle.

  Jake nearly lost his balance for a moment, but recovered and kept running.

  “You all right?” Minh-Chu asked.

  “I turned the resistance of my suit up, just learning to fight through it,” he replied. “So, how many people on your crew broke regulations last night?”

  “Nine,” Minh-Chu said. “Only two were pilots, and they were both fraternization rule violations. The rest were either out of bounds, or late for duty.”

  “Lucky,” Jake said. “There were a hundred five violations made by the rest of the crew. Six were officers, one was a senior officer.”

  “What? That’s a really high number, right?”

  “For the first night in the military after taking people in only based on their records and their qualification testing? No, that’s less than ten percent of the crew,” Jake replied. “I was expecting about three hundred.”

  “Seriously?” Minh-Chu said. “So what are you going to do?”

  “Well, I’m going to talk to Stephanie, but I bet we’ll end up doing similar punishments across the board. Anyone who broke violence or substance abuse regulations will see me in Captain’s Mast.”

  “How many will you be seeing?” Minh-Chu asked.

  “Nineteen enlisted, two Officers. One is Frost, so that’ll take ten seconds,” Jake said.

  “Whatever punishment you dole out for him will be nothing compared to what Stephanie does to him,” Minh-Chu said. “I know it’s confidential but-“

  “Rum,” Jake said. “Crewcast recorded him giving a cup of Black Sail rum out to his senior gunnery team. I doubt Stephanie will give him a hard time, she’ll have some fun at his expense though.”

  Minh-Chu laughed, “But you’ve gotta set an example, right?”

  “A light one for that, but he’s getting restriction for a week, then it’s his responsibility to punish his people.”

  “Oh, that’s going to suck,” Minh-Chu said. “I’ll watch what you do to punish your people before I punish mine. There’s a guide in the regulations, but I’m thinking I’ll go light this time.”

  “Just a warning and a little restriction to duty?” Jake said.

  “Exactly, except for the one who started a fight. Sticky got into it with an Engineer’s Mate and broke his nose,” Minh-Chu said. “You’ll hear about it, the engineer is on your list.”

  “What Sticky getting?” Jake asked.

  “No flight priviledges for three days, she gets to be my sensor intercept officer instead, and extra watch for five,” Minh-Chu said. “Can’t start fights across departments or across ranks.”

  “Or at all,” Jake said.

  “That too,” Minh-Chu said. “Speaking of, have you thought of trying martial arts training? Great balance and discipline.”

  “I was programmed with some as a framework,” Jake said, “And Doctor Messana made sure there was a good basis for martial arts in the muscle memory work she did on me. I should try. Are you offering?”

  “I’m not your guy,” Minh-Chu said. “All I have is the old Freeground training, and I’m rusty.”

  “That was good training,” Jake said. “Served me well so far. Why don’t we start something every third morning?”

  “All right, but just you and I at first, we’ll have to get a good grip on it before we start getting other people into it. We also need someone for more involved martial arts, you know, to keep things interesting.”

  “Stephanie,” Jake said. “We need Stephanie in on this. She can throw people three times her size around, has a gymnastics background and they trained in cross discipline martial arts when she went through her military training.”

  “I am not surprised,” Minh-Chu said. “Let’s take a break. I’m in shape, but obviously not your kind of shape, we’ve been pinning it and you’re barely winded.”

  Jake felt a little sweat on his brow, but had to admit that he was finding the morning jog fairly easy, even with his suit fighting his every movement. They sat down on a pair of crates along the side of the hall. There were over a hundred crewmembers within sight, starting their morning, loading equipment, parts and supplies onto carts. “Sorry, Minh,” Jake said. “I’m only as good as they made me.”

  “You’re going to have to start bench pressing railgun shells to stay in that kind of shape,” Minh-Chu replied. “Or running with a gravity enhancement pack.”

  “Not a bad idea,” Jake replied. “But I think this morning run is a good way to catch up before the day starts.”

  “Let’s invite all the department heads,” Minh-Chu said. “Better than sitting down for a morning briefing with bad coffee and a tray full of forma pastries.”

  “Good idea.”

  “For now, let’s do one more lap, then I need coffee,” Minh-Chu said.

  They started running, Jake enjoyed a look through the last fifty metres of transparent hull as an army of skitters started moving boxes and major components for the aft launch bay under the direction of several crewmembers. Alone, a skitter was only a small shiny dome of metal, a smaller brain, and a bunch of tiny but strong arms that they used to walk, carry objects or interchange for tools. As a group, the skitters were strong, could pile up on top each other, and make repairs quickly. He made a mental note to order more from the Triton manufacturing bay.

  “All brace for test firing,” announced Frost over the public addressing system.

  “Someone’s pushing his crew this morning,” Minh-Chu said, running to the wal
l and leaning. “Must be punishment for last night.”

  “I get the feeling it’s going to be worse for them than it will be for him,” Jake said. “At least we’re out of wormhole transit on time.”

  The ship rumbled and shuddered as several thuds echoed from above. “I counted nine,” Minh-Chu said.

  “Same here,” Jake added. “Where’s the other-“ he was cut off as three more of the main railgun turrets fired. “Are they not firing the last three?” The last three fired. Jake checked his command and control unit and found his fears justified. “That was supposed to be our first simultaneous load and fire.”

  “Those were all supposed to go off at the same time?” Minh-Chu asked. “Frost has some work to do.”

  “You know it, at least the ship is handling the stress well,” Jake said.

  “If that’s what it felt like down here, then I’d hate to be one deck below,” Minh-Chu said.

  “All clear, all clear,” said Chief Frost over the communications system. “Next test in ten minutes.”

  “Oh, that’s going on all morning,” Minh-Chu said.

  “Fine by me,” Jake replied. “I told him to get his gun crew in shape, that’s what he’s doing.” He ran up a ramp then through a tall pair of secure doors. They opened for he and Minh-Chu as officers, and they came face to face with the dimension drive, sitting in the middle of a space surrounded by three levels of catwalks. Jake stopped and looked at the strange machine.

  “So, first test on that today too?” Minh-Chu asked.

  “Aye,” Jake replied. “We’re going to make it to the nebula by noon.”

  “Can I wait outside in a fighter, just in case?”

  “If you wait outside, then I’ll have to let everyone wait outside,” Jake said.

  “Going to be a busy day,” Minh-Chu said.

  “May as well get to it.”