by D. J. Holmes
“We will both be there for them,” James said, making up his mind.
Chapter 9 – Captain Denning
War is a strange thing, even in defeat and certain death mankind can find ways to claim some small victory.
-Excerpt from Empire Rising, 3002 AD
24th March, 2467 AD, ISF Shiva, shift space near Haven.
Admiral Kumar sat on the bridge of her Battlecruiser, Shiva, looking at the holo display’s representation of her fleet. Alongside Shiva’s sister ship Vishnu, Kumar’s fleet consisted of four heavy, five medium and eight light cruisers along with twelve destroyers and twenty frigates. Her fleet counted over half of the Indian Space Force’s ships among its numbers. The significance was not lost on her; her fleet was on one of the most important missions an Indian fleet had ever attempted.
In five minutes her fleet would drop out of shift space into the Haven system. Kumar didn’t know exactly what to expect but she knew that there would be nothing that could stand in her way. In just a matter of days Haven would be added to India’s colonial systems. After that Kumar would send ships to take the small Havenite colony in what the Havenites called the Independence System along with whatever other mining operations they had in the surrounding systems. In all, more than twenty systems would be added to Indian space. Together they would increase the number of systems under her government’s control by almost twenty percent. No colonial power had seen their empire expand so quickly in over one hundred years.
“Exiting shift space in five four three...” one of the Lieutenants on the bridge announced.
Kumar braced herself for the slight wobble that went through the ship as it exited shift space. Indian intel suggested that the American and British ships didn’t have such a pronounced feeling. Kumar wasn’t surprised, their technology always seemed to be a step ahead of the other colonial powers. As a small amount of bile threatened to escape up her throat, she couldn’t help but be jealous. It doesn’t matter, she said to herself as she regained control, the Havenites will find out our missiles are just as deadly as any other Earth power.
“Fill me in on the details as our sensors update,” Kumar ordered her bridge crew.
Satisfied she would be alerted if anything was out of the ordinary, she sat back in her command chair and watched her fleet form up around her. The holo display of the ships in shift space had been a projection of where the ships should be. In shift space it was impossible for ships to actually detect each other. The fleet had exited shift space slightly out of formation and those ships that needed to were maneuvering back into their allotted positions.
“I have three or four ships in the outer system. They appear to be freighters transporting raw materials to Haven,” one of the Lieutenants reported. “I’m also picking up emissions from two or three warships in the inner system but I can’t be sure at this range. One thing is for sure, there is a heck of a lot of activity going on in orbit. It looks like there are tens of space stations under construction.”
“Move the fleet towards Haven,” Kumar ordered. “Let’s not give them any more time to prepare than we have to.”
*
Captain Denning was taking a tour of his ship as it sat in orbit around Haven. It had taken his crew two days to repair enough of the damage Endeavour had caused before they could jump into shift space and return from the Gift. That had been over twenty days ago. Now they were safely back in the Haven system.
First Councilor Maximillian had been far from pleased when he heard that Endeavour had somehow known about the Gift. Denning wasn’t sure what Admiral Harris and Solitude were doing in the Alpha system but he knew that whatever it was it was important. He hadn’t seen Maximillian so nervous before.
Denning had requested that his ship dock with the single repair yard that had survived the Vestarian attack. However, Maximillian in his anger had refused. Denning’s crew had been forced to continue the repairs in orbit. He was currently finishing an inspection of the reactor that had just been brought back online.
“Everything looks as good as new Chief,” Denning said to Dauntless’ Engineer.
“Aye Captain, I just wish we could get some specialized repair suits to send the crew out to repair the damage to the outer hull. I’m sure we look like a wreck on the outside,” Chief Garcia said.
“I don’t doubt it,” Denning said. “But at least we are combat worthy.”
Both men paused when a combat siren went off. “Captain to the bridge,” Denning’s First Lieutenant called over the ship’s COM. “Captain to the bridge. Everyone else to battle stations. We have an incoming fleet.”
“Later Chief,” Denning called as he sprinted out of the reactor room towards the turbo lift to the bridge.
“Status report?” Denning demanded as he bounded onto the bridge.
“Multiple warships just lit off their impulse drives, I’m counting over thirty and the number keeps increasing as our computers get more time to analyze the data,” his First Lieutenant reported.
“Any idea who they are?” Denning asked.
“They are not Vestarian, unless the Vestarians have made a major improvement in their drive technology. They must be ships from one of the Earth nations. Maybe the British sent a fleet to make sure we aren’t attacked again?” the sensor officer asked hopefully.
“I doubt it,” Denning said. “There is no way the British assembled a fleet this large so fast. It could only be one of the other Earth powers. India I’d guess. And if they’ve brought so many ships I can’t see their intentions as friendly.”
Two hours later, when the electromagnetic radiation from the new ships reached Haven, Denning had no doubt about the Indians’ intentions. The large fleet had split off into two sections. In the front section two large warships led a host of smaller ones. Denning guessed they were both battlecruisers. Certainly, they were far larger than the Haven Defense Fleet’s flagship Solitude. That hardly mattered for Solitude was a long way away from Haven at the minute.
The rear section was dominated by four ships that almost matched the battlecruisers in size. From the visuals, there was no sign of offensive weaponry and Denning guessed they were troop ships. That meant one thing. The Indians were here to stay, whether the Havenites would welcome them or not.
“I’m getting a COM message from the First Councilor, Captain,” an officer on the bridge reported.
“Put it through to my office, I will take it there,” Denning ordered as he stood and walked out of the bridge into his adjoining office.
“Captain Denning,” First Councilor Maximillian said once Denning opened the COM channel.
“First Councilor,” Denning began. “Our situation looks bleak.”
“You are correct,” Maximillian said. “This is what I have feared ever since we made contact with the earthlings. Yet we are still Havenites, I don’t intend to make things easy for these Indian scum.”
“I expected nothing less from you First Councilor.” Denning said. “But I don’t think there is much the Haven Defense Fleet can do to help you. This fleet is going to swat us out of existence without even having to pause for breath.”
“We have the orbital missiles we have been installing for the last three months. Won’t they hold the Indians off?” Maximillian asked.
“Not against such a large fleet. They may cause a dent or two, but that will be all,” Denning said.
“Well, no matter,” Maximillian said crossly. “I will be addressing the nation in thirty minutes. I will be calling on every able-bodied person to begin preparations for a ground resistance. If we can’t stop them in space, then we will make them bleed once they land.”
“Yes sir, I’m sure our people will respond to your call,” Denning said. “May I suggest we set our warships onto autopilot. They can fire a single broadside to coincide with the orbital missiles. Even with the crews on board I’m not sure we could do any more than that. And having another thousand trained personnel on the ground might make a difference in the grou
nd war.”
“No you may not,” Maximillian said. “You have already failed me once Denning. You should never have let Endeavour get past you at the Gift. You are not going to fail me again. I am placing you in charge of our space forces. You are to destroy as many of the Indian ships as possible. If you can, I want their troop ships taken out.”
“But Sir,” Denning protested. “Hawk is the larger warship, shouldn’t her Captain be in charge of our forces?”
“Captain Tash was promoted from Second Lieutenant when both his seniors were killed in the battle with the Vestarians. You have far more experience. I am putting you in command. See that my orders are carried out Captain.”
“Yes sir,” Denning said as Maximillian cut the COM channel.
For more than half an hour Denning stared at the approaching Indian fleet on the small holo display in his office. Finally, he came up with a plan that he thought might just work. Quickly, he composed a message to every crew member on board the remaining four Haven Defense Fleet ships. They needed to know they weren’t coming back from this mission. Once done he jumped up and strode into the bridge.
“You have all read the message I sent to our personnel?” he asked as he sat down in his command chair. Everyone nodded at him. “If you need to take a few minutes to compose a message to your loved ones, you have the next half an hour to do so. After that I expect everyone to be at their battle stations until the end.
“Navigation officer, take Dauntless along the course I have sent you. Signal the rest of our ships to take up station astern of us,” Denning ordered.
As soon as Dauntless moved around Haven out of sight of the Indian ships the other Haven Defense Fleet ships followed. For the next three hours, Dauntless sped away from Haven in the opposite direction to the incoming Indian fleet. Then, as one, the Havenite ships braked, turned around and accelerated directly towards Haven.
“How are the alterations to our ship coming?” Denning asked the Chief Engineer over the COM channel.
“They are about done sir,” the Chief answered. “It’s not going to be perfect but if we survive it might just fool someone.”
“It’s the best chance we have,” Denning said. “Let’s just hope someone isn’t paying attention in the Indian fleet.”
Denning knew his plan was a long shot. Since Endeavour had first showed up at Haven and used a few tricks the RSN had learnt in previous interstellar wars, Admiral Harris had made it a priority for Haven spies to get as much information as possible on all the conflicts that had taken place in the Human Sphere since the Haven colony ship had left Earth. Denning knew what Admiral Harris had been up to and he had poured over the information the spies had turned up. There had been very little details about most of the battles as the various governments had classified a lot of the data. However, Denning had been able to read between the lines on a number of occasions. As he had been searching for any kind of plan on how to deal with the Indians, one encounter had popped into his memory. At the beginning of the British war with the Chinese one Captain had somehow managed to destroy a far superior foe. Denning had a fair idea of how he managed to pull off such a feat. Replicating the move was the best option he had and the damage to his ship that was not yet repaired might be the one thing that would allow them to get away with it.
After another three hours of accelerating towards Haven, Denning’s four ships swung around the planet already traveling at their maximum speed. “Ignore our safety protocols, continue our maximum acceleration,” Denning ordered.
“Aye sir,” the navigation officer ordered.
The Valstronium armor human warships were coated in protected them from cosmic rays and particle strikes as well as from enemy fire. However, once the relativistic speeds crossed a certain threshold the armor could not protect the ships and their crew. Denning knew it hardly mattered if his crews suffered massive radiation poisoning. They would be dead long before the radiation killed them and, if by chance a stray cosmic particle destroyed one of his ships, it wouldn’t decrease their chances of success. On the other hand, the faster they were going the more likely his plan was to work.
“Signal the orbital missiles to fire in thirty seconds,” Denning ordered.
*
“Admiral, the Haven ships are rounding the planet, they are coming straight at us,” one of Shiva’s sensor officers called out.
“They didn’t run away after all,” Kumar said. “Give them a full broadside as soon as we get into range.”
“That will be in ten minutes Admiral,” the tactical officer called.
“Missile launch!” the sensor officer called out in alarm.
“From where?” Kumar demanded.
“From everywhere,” the sensor officer blurted out. When Kumar shot him a withering look, he elaborated. “Ah, I mean, from all over the planet. They must have had missiles sitting in orbit just waiting to launch at us.”
“How many?” Kumar asked, as she looked at the holo display. There were too many for her to count.
“The gravimetric sensors are picking up over one hundred and fifty,” the sensor officer replied.
“Gamma formation,” Kumar ordered. “Signal our lead ships to fire on the Haven warships when they enter range. The rest of the fleet is to focus on engaging those missiles. I’m not going to let those Havenites destroy one of my ships.”
Damn them, she thought. They must have been preparing for an attack for months. They are not supposed to have missiles with that kind of range. “What are the sensors saying about those missiles?” she asked.
“They look bigger than our battlecruiser missiles,” the sensor officer responded. “Their acceleration rate is not as good as ours though. They must have sacrificed payload and maneuverability for extra range.”
That is more like it, Kumar thought, they should be easy to pick off.
*
“They are changing formation,” one of Denning’s officers announced.
“Good,” Denning said as he watched the holo display change. “They are more worried about the missiles from Haven. After they pass us, take us in right behind them,” he ordered the navigation officer.
For the next ten minutes Denning watched the missiles that had been fired from Haven catch his ships. The missiles were capable of far greater acceleration rates and had a greater top speed allowing them to quickly catchup with his small flotilla. Just as they overtook his ships, the lead ships in the Indian formation opened fire with their own missiles.
“Forty missiles inbound,” his sensor officer reported.
Denning had to wait another minute before his ships could open fire, as their range was not as great as the Indians’. “Firing,” the tactical officer announced as ten new dots appeared on the holo display and accelerated after the swarm of Haven missiles.
“Indian missiles entering engagement range in fifty seconds,” someone on the bridge shouted.
“Signal the other ships,” Denning ordered. “Wish them luck.”
As the Indian missiles entered the range of the Havenite warship’s point defenses tens of AM missiles reached out to take them out. Forty became thirty-five and then thirty. Yet the four Havenite warships alone and outnumbered couldn’t hope to fend off so many missiles.
“It’s time Chief,” Denning called out over the COM channel. “Navigation, as soon as the Chief blows the charges put us into a roll along the trajectory I sent you.”
This was a part of the plan Denning hadn’t shared with the other Captains. Staring death in the face had forced him to make some tough decisions. His actions would almost guarantee the other ships would be destroyed, but when they were all going to die anyway it hardly mattered.
Just seconds after giving the command Denning was thrown about in his command chair as a number of explosions rocked his small frigate. The inertial dampeners failed to adjust quickly enough to one of the largest explosions. The increased g-forces caused Denning to black out for a moment. Thankfully the navigation officer managed
to stay awake just long enough to throw the ship into the roll Denning had requested.
To the sensors of the five missiles homing in on Denning’s frigate it looked as if the small warship had suffered some sort of catastrophic drive failure. Their preprogrammed targeting algorithms recalculated the threat the frigate posed. Four of the five missiles retargeted themselves on the other warships. One, realizing that it couldn’t re-orientate itself in time, still dove towards the stricken frigate. However, the milliseconds it had taken to make its decision and the violent roll Dauntless had been thrown into, caused the missile to overshoot its target. Sensing this, the missile detonated as it passed Dauntless, causing a wave of electromagnetic energy to wash over the ship’s armor, adding to the destruction of the ship’s outer hull and nudging the ship off course.
