Wolves at the Gate (Star Wolf Squadron Book 3)

by Shane VanAulen

  “What was that?” the ship mistress demanded.

  “A frigate, it closed in from the rear and fired a torpedo into our fusion engines,” the maser operator answered.

  “Lock onto that ship and destroy it!” the Ship Mistress ordered looking at a monitor for the damage indicator and seeing that her maneuver drives were dead. The engineering section wasn’t answering her hails and they were most likely all dead.

  “Target locks are still unstable but we did score a hit as it veered off,” the Second reported.

  “What of the other armored cruiser group to our starboard?” Cen-Kol questioned not caring about an insignificant frigate.

  Squinting her eyes, she could just see them on the holo-map but it wasn’t good. They were in full reverse and retreating back to their original positions on the line. As she watched the armored cruiser and the light cruiser’s fusion and particle turrets render the KCD 8 into a crushed and twisted mass of metal. The KCD 11 fared even worse as the second armored cruiser fired its particle spinal mounted cannon and blew through the smaller ship as it exploded into thousands of pieces.

  At least forty star fighters had escorted each armored cruiser group and during both spinal strike they had pulled back and flew clear right before the death blows. Whoever the admiral was that she faced, she knew that this officer knew how to fight and had created a well-planned attack.

  “Status of maneuver drives?” she asked almost absentmindedly as she wondered what the Confederation admiral’s next move would be.

  “Badly damaged, no report available at this time, all we have are EM thrusters,” the Second answered.

  The two heavy cruisers and two light cruisers were still to her ship’s front but her spinal mount was aligned towards the armored cruiser that was now safely out of range. The KD 112 was clearly outmatched and was fighting alone as her two destroyer escorts had been already taken out of the fight.

  The old heavy cruisers and light cruisers of this Defense Fleet must have had some kind of significate upgrades as they were firing at longer ranges then they should have been capable of doing. The four ships had stayed back at range and pounded the weaker destroyer escorts before they could even get into their weapons range.

  Torpedoes, missiles and energy weapons were then turned on the destroyer along with thirty-eight star fighters. Having their systems scrambled for the first few minutes of the battle had only added to their confusion and loss.

  Squadron Mistress Cen-Kol was still thinking this when one of the heavy cruisers did what she thought was impossible. KD112 was suffering dozens of hull breaches, damage to almost all of her systems as well as having her bender drives disabled.

  Unable to stay toe to toe with these four enemy ships she had tried to reverse course and pull back to the battle destroyer for help. As she closed to safety, the port side heavy cruiser fired a spinal mounted particle strike, blowing the destroyer's maneuver drives completely from her hull.

  “Impossible!” the Ship Mistress cried out at this unexpected attack.

  The Squadron Mistress made no such emotional outcry and instead brought up the sensor readings on these two heavy cruisers. Like all of this human fleet, the heavy cruisers had been upgraded and improved. Their ship signatures were off compared to those in the records that they had for the Hero-Class heavy cruiser. Both of these old ships now had C-type spinal mounts that looked to have been added to their design and were built not through the center of the ship but along their port side.

  “My Lady, the enemy commander is signaling and asking to speak with you,” her comm. operator said.

  Cen-Kol already knew what this human commander wanted to her talk about. Her ships were defeated across the line. Her star fighters were also beaten and her flagship was without maneuver drives. Her spinal mounted particle weapon was out of target alignment and by the time thrusters could bring the ship on target the enemy would just withdraw and move out of her range.

  The humans had four capital ships, each with a spinal cannon and even if she had her engines and could turn and move it was very doubtful she could have destroyed more than one or two ships. She did have two undamaged standard destroyers from the Beta Well but they were still hours away.

  “Open a channel, visual on the main portal,” she said still trying to deal with this clear defeat. To her surprise, a human woman appeared on the screen before her. The human wore the insignia of an admiral but what was most striking was that she was old and that she had only one eye. That dark brown eye was staring at her from across the screen.

  “I’m Admiral Janice Dupain, commander of the 8th Imperial Defense Fleet. I believe this is where I give you a few options including your surrender or destruction. I think you understand that I have disabled your battle destroyer’s engines and have destroyed your support ships. I also have four ships, all equipped with spinal mounted particle cannons positioned on different angles to destroy you,” she said.

  “What are your terms?” the Squadron Mistress asked having only one other option left to play.

  “Order all of your forces to surrender and have your ships prepare to be boarded. I guarantee your safety and your crews will be well treated,” the human admiral declared.

  “I could still explode this ship,” she said using her last strategy.

  “Your escape pods would never get clear of the explosion in time. Not to mention the destruction you’d cause to your other badly damaged ships and to your escape pods that are already floating out there,” Dupain countered and then added, “there is no dishonor in being beaten by a larger force.”

  It was not unheard of for a ship mistress to commit suicide for her failures but only a few crazy ones wanted to take their crews with them.

  “If I surrender, I’d want my two destroyers that are on the other side of the system to be allowed to go free,” Cen-Tol proposed.

  “No, they would have to surrender as well,” the admiral sometimes called the She-Wolf replied.

  “Do you really expect me to order two destroyers, who are out of the combat area to also surrender?” she replied amazed at this officer’s audacity.

  “Well, let’s see it my way for a moment that if they don’t comply I might have to send ships after them and they wouldn’t be very happy when they caught up with them,” she informed her single brown eye glaring across the screen.

  The Blue Squadron Mistress nodded as she made up her mind.

  “I and all Karduan ships that are in the combat area will surrender but my two destroyers’ Ship Mistresses will decide for themselves if they want to surrender or make a run for it,” she said in a last spark of defiance.

  “Very well, I accept your surrender,” Dupain said trying to keep from smiling, “You may prepare for our boarding parties and remember any deception will be met with swift retribution.”

  Cen-Tol bowed a little from the waist and then cut off the comm. link.

  “Ma’am, the two destroyers are making a run for the gravity well,” the maser operator called out.

  She wanted to say let them go as it would be a waste of time to chase them but an effort had to be made.

  “Have the fast attack wing pursue them as well as the Formidable and the light cruiser Kako,” she ordered thinking that maybe her frigates and sloops could catch them if they were lucky.

  “Admiral, did you really expect her to surrender those two outer ships?” Captain Wallace inquired finding her negotiating tactics curious.

  “No, I never expected her to surrender those ships but I wanted her to retain some part of her pride in opposing me on that last issue and keep her from blowing a battle destroyer to bits. I’m sure that Admiral Hope has a few crewmen that could not only fix but man that vessel,” she revealed now letting a slight grin slip out.

  Sitting back in her seat, she watched as her staff and ship captains took over and started the long process of sending out boarding parties, taking prisoners and collecting life pods. Admiral Dupain sent a sloop back to Starbase
24 for her transport ships to move up to house the prisoners. She was also planning to have a ship go back to Hanson’s World to get the ISS Mastodon to help with salvage operations and the repair of her ships.

  In the end, the two Karduan destroyers just managed to escape with a half-dozen frigates and sloops nipping at their heels. The She-Wolf then called them back, her thirst for battle sated for the time being.

  Chapter Ten

  “Lt. Collins, that was a well fought engagement and a well led attack,” Admiral Dupain complimented happy that the fast attack wing accomplishing all of its mission goals during the battle.

  “Thank you, Ma’am, the credit goes to my crew and the other ships in the wing,” he said in praise.

  “I now want you to take the Goliad and return to Starbase 24 for repairs,” she ordered from across the comm. link.

  “Ma’am, we are carrying out repairs and we are able to help with the life-pod recovery operations,” Mike informed.

  Dupain shook her head.

  “No, you have a previous date you need to keep,” she said.

  “Yes, Ma’am, but we could be of help and I do speak Karduan,” he offered.

  “We have this under control and you need to let Admiral Hope know what’s happened here as well as warning him about that idiot Essex,” Dupain said and added, “So, let’s make that an order.”

  “Aye, Ma’am,” Mike replied knowing that arguing or even suggesting was now a mute-point.

  “Good, now get moving, repair bay one at the starbase should be waiting for your arrival,” she said and terminated their call before he could say anything else.

  “Alright, you all heard the admiral,” he said and looked to the helm. “Mister Pitt, head for the gravity well and prepare to polarize the hull for a bend.”

  “Aye sir,” Jeremy answered.

  Mike then sat back as damage reports and updates on the progression of repairs came across his captain chair’s monitor. Med-Bot had been busy taking care of the wounded and he was lucky this time as they had no fatalities. The thought of the Randori and losing so many crewmen still bothered him.

  He was still thinking about that past desperate battle when a comm. channel call lit up on his chair’s board.

  “Collins here, what’s up?” he asked as he answered.

  “Sir, can you come down to D-Deck we have a situation,” Schmidty asked with a frown on his face.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “It would be better if I showed you,” the Chief Petty Officer said.

  “Ok, where on D-Deck?” Mike asked

  “Corridor three, outside of the head,” he informed.

  “Don’t tell me the bathroom blew up,” Collins speculated.

  “No sir, just get down here as soon as you can,” the NCO said sounding tired.

  “Roger, on my way,” he replied and cut the link. “Mister Pitt you have the bridge.”

  “Aye sir,” the young ensign replied as Mike hurriedly left the bridge and took the lift down to D-Deck.

  He found the Chief and two other crewmen standing outside the head on this deck. The hatch was shut and they all looked tired and a little pissed.

  “What going on?” he inquired as walked up to them.

  “Specialist Duffey B. Thach is stuck inside the head,” CPO Schmidt informed.

  “What?”

  One of the crewmen scratched his head as he explained, “He disappeared from his station at the beginning of the battle and no one noticed he was gone.”

  “When we did figure out he was missing we started a search and found that this head’s door was jammed shut,” the other crewman reported.

  “On purpose?” Mike asked trying the manual emergency handle for himself.

  “As far as we can tell,” Chief Schmidt said.

  “Has anyone spoken to him or tried to contact his comm. link?” the ship captain questioned.

  “We’ve tried his link but there is no answer,” the Chief replied and continued, “We are getting a life sign from in there and communications says that’s where his link is.”

  “Could he be hurt?” Collins wondered thinking that they were doing some fast and hard evasions and turns.

  “Maybe, hard to tell with the door jammed,” a crewman said.

  “How long to get him out?”

  “I’d say an hour or two to cut open the wall and get to the inner release catch,” Schmidty speculated knowing these old battle frigates were meant to take a pounding and even their interior walls were thick.

  Mike looked at the door for a minute and let out a sigh.

  “How about we lower the temperature?”

  “What?” one of the crewmen said in surprise.

  “It appears that he has locked himself in there and that it will take a lot of effort to cut through the bulkhead. I’m betting that if we lower the temperature then the door will open up all by its self.”

  “What if he is hurt?” a crewman asked.

  “We’ll give it a few minutes, after all, you have to get the laser torch and then figure out where not to cut. That’s going to take at least ten to fifteen minutes. Also, if he is hurt then lowering the temperature could reduce any bleeding.”

  They all looked at him for a moment and then as a group they slowly smiled.

  “Ok, let’s get the temperature down to below freezing while we get the tools and wall’s schematics we will need,” the Chief ordered as his men ran around to get it all done.

  Mike stood nearby and waited. Whatever was going on he wanted to see it firsthand. It took the chief and his men ten minutes to get everything in place, by that time the head was registering a temperature a little below freezing.

  Schmidty looked over to him as he leaned against the wall.

  “Give it five more minutes,” Lt. Collins said.

  The old chief nodded and looked over the blueprints on his palm pad one more time to figure out the easiest way to cut the bulkhead open.

  As the last few seconds passed by they moved into place to start cutting. It was at that moment when the door made a noise and then opened up. Standing in the doorway was a shivering Duffey B. Thach. He was swearing as they helped him into the corridor while one of the crewmen ran to get him a blanket. The little man was mad at everyone as he cursed at them like a drunk angry sailor.

  “This ship sucks, all of you are incompetent asses, can’t anyone do anything right around here!” he complained and pushed them away even as other crewmen tried to help him.

  They could all see that the little pathetic man had once more urinated himself.

  “Specialist Thach, what happened here?” CPO Schmidt asked.

  “What happened? I’ll tell you what happened! I went to take a leak and the god damn door got stuck! That’s what fucking happen!” he yelled.

  Mike shook his head as he frowned. The Chief looked over to him, saw the frown and walked away from the complaining little man.

  “What should we do with him, sir? Schmidty inquired.

  “Clean him up, check the door for a malfunction. If there isn’t one write him up for leaving his station during a time of battle and confine him to quarters when he is not on duty. Any charges will be pressed when we get to the Wolf’s Den,” he instructed not wanting to drop him off at Starbase 24. He also still needed an air and water reclamations specialist and until he could get a new one he was stuck with Duffey “Pee” Thach.

  Heading back to the bridge he kept thinking of what Miguel de Cervantes, one-time soldier and the author of Don Quixote said, “True valor lies between cowardice and rashness.” There was no doubt in Mike’s mind that Duffey was overwhelmed by his own fears and had once more proved that he was far to the left of valor.

  Reaching the starbase they were all surprised that the repair bay and its crew of engineers and mechanics were waiting and ready for their arrival. Repair droids of all shapes and sizes, as well as human personnel, swarmed onto the ship. Whatever Admiral Dupain had said to them sure lit a fire under them
.

  Mike and his crew sat back and relaxed as these skilled operators repaired his ship. Surprisingly, one of them even found a maser unit for them. Later, he found out that PO2 Curtis, his scrounger had discovered a storage room full of them and pointed out that they needed one.

  By the end of the second day they were repaired and rearmed with all the ordinance they could carry. Leaving the starbase they headed back to the Alpha gravity well and returned to the battle site. Only a few Confederation ships where still there as the armored cruisers had returned to Ryu-Six along with many of the more damaged ships. The freighters had also returned packed with Karduan prisoners.

  Two light cruisers, along with the Shinano and Caster as well as a few sloops and frigates were still there rounding up damaged ships and fighters. They were also waiting until the Mastodon arrived to move the larger wrecks back to Starbase 24. The enemy battle destroyer was dead in space as her maneuver drive had taken numerous torpedo and missile hits. She would have to be either repaired on site or towed away.

  Mile hailed the Shinano and found that his guess was right and Admiral Dupain had returned her flag to the carrier.

  “Well Lieutenant, when you see those three scoundrels you tell them I’ll be there as soon as I get this mess sorted out and some relief ships moved up to guard the starbase,” she said with a very slight smile.

  “I will Ma’am, who will be replacing you?” he asked in curiosity.

  “Hopefully, the brand new 42nd Attack Fleet should be completed soon and will be heading out to reinforce us but I’m counting on Commander McClune to get those light cruisers and heavy cruisers done in the next few weeks. I know that the Admiralty was already forming crews for them so I hope it will be soon,” she explained anxious to see her three friends again and fight by their sides once more.

  “Any other messages?” he asked.

  “Yes, tell Commodore Kirkland that he owes us all a round of drinks for making flag rank last,” she said.

  “Commodore?” Mike commented in surprise.

  “You didn’t read all of those promotions and awards, did you?”