Imperium: Betrayal: Book One in the Imperium Trilogy

by Paul M Calvert

  Safely in her quarters, Vimes confirmed everything was in hand, then quickly ran through the actions he’d taken to secure the Palace and Capital. She felt a slight tremor as the entire section of the Palace which made up their quarters, sealed off and began to descend down into the bedrock below, layers of smart metal forming above as it continued down. Within minutes the entire suite was two miles underground and safe from any further attack, surrounded as it was by the most up-to-date and sophisticated defence systems available to the Empire. Through her implant, Christine could sense rarely used defensive and offensive systems begin cycling through into complete readiness.

  Satisfied nothing immediate needed her attention, Christine walked to a smart-metal terminal and docked the damaged suit for re-absorption. Stepping out of the diminishing suit she sat at her desk and instructed Vimes to activate the secret IQA communication device, praying for Alex to contact her from wherever he was before it was too late.

  As she waited, Vimes began relaying the terrible news of what was now happening across the Empire.

  Scene 27, DU-499

  Two hours after entering the system, on the bridge of INS Courageous, Captain Woods was watching his small task force accelerate away from the flagship. When they reached a distance of thirteen hundred miles ahead of the main force he would maintain position by reducing acceleration to normal. He was pleased the Admiral had chosen him to lead the attack, especially as the Emperor would be observing.

  Woods was well aware that Captains under Frith’s command tended to go places and he wanted to demonstrate her faith in him was justified. He quickly reminded himself they only got to go places provided they didn’t foul up, which prompted him to go over his plan again, looking for flaws or anything he might have missed.

  His plan was simple. When close to the target he intended to launch nineteen of his twenty fighter squadrons to take out any ships caught on the ground, along with as much of the base’s defence infrastructure as possible, leaving it open to ground assault from Marines. These would seek prisoners for questioning and intelligence on other bases. Originally, the Admiral had wanted him to simply bombard the base from orbit, but he had disagreed and set out his alternative plan, supported by the Captain of Marines. Much to his relief, after a short debate the Admiral agreed to his plan of attack. Initially a little nervous about voicing his opinion, especially as it contradicted the Admirals, he was certain he’d done the right thing but didn’t plan on making a habit of it.

  His bridge held a smaller version of the “tank” found on Dauntless and was currently displaying six fighter squadrons accelerating away from the carrier to take position all around his force, just outside the range of its mass sensors, thereby extending coverage. Although not necessary to run screening this far away from the target, he wanted to ensure nothing was left to chance.

  Remotely piloting their fighters from control pods safe in the hangers themselves, Harris and the other five squadrons were pulling their fighters away from INS Courageous at 10-g and in a few minutes would be in a position to begin looking for anything out of the ordinary. Remotely piloted fighters like hers were ideal for short range reconnaissance, often picking up details missed by AI controlled drones. In the days leading up to this engagement she had been drilling her flight regularly until satisfied with their performance. As would be expected from a team that had been together for so long, they didn’t need too much work and even Hinchin, Coleman, and Quigley seemed to have come around to her command style.

  She checked the head-up display for the relative positions of the three capital ships receding behind her. INS Rodney and Renoun were slightly ahead of the carrier, with the three interdiction frigates ahead and to either side. With the target still days ahead this was going to be just another routine flight.

  From the relative comfort of her ready room, Admiral Frith checked the disposition of the two groups on a holographic display, watching the ships under Captain Woods command move ahead. The display currently identified Woods group in green and her own in blue, slowly moving backwards as the others accelerated away. Tiny silver motes in the tank indicated the fighters from INS Courageous, spreading out to cover space ahead of the fleet.

  Frith was pleased he’d risen to the bait and argued against the initial battle plan she had put forward. That was her first test of his leadership and indicated he wasn’t afraid to argue against authority, something she valued in her Captains. In her opinion, far too many of those coming out of the Academy seemed to be little more than yes-men and women.

  Although confident of success, from her memory two sayings came unbidden, giving her a moment’s pause: “The enemy only attacks on one of two occasions; when you are ready for them and when you’re not,” and “If something can go wrong, it will. Usually at the worst possible moment.”

  She thought hard for several seconds before coming to a decision based solely on intuition. Linking privately with her First Officer she instructed him to call battle stations again, even though the ships had previously only stood down a short while previously, following the successful Jump. On her Bridge monitoring screen, she watched several of the bridge staff turn to look quizzically at her First Officer, who smiled back and nodded as they turned to follow instructions.

  Almost immediately, a query come in from Captain Miller of INS Glorious, the other carrier, requesting clarification before raising shields. Typical of the man. His officious and often superior attitude towards everyone at times rankled even her and she was seriously considering replacing him at the end of this tour. Assigned by the Chiefs of Staff as a replacement for Captain Skye “Tempest” MacFarlane on her promotion to Commodore, Frith was beginning to suspect it had more to do with the Admiralty wanting to be rid of him rather than his ability to command.

  Although raising additional shielding would marginally increase the risk of detection, Frith felt the risk worth taking. Her instincts seldom failed and even if wrong this time, it was unlikely any harm would be done. She recalled from many years ago the first time she had met the Emperor and his first words to her.

  “I know you are a fine Admiral, Frith, but are you a lucky one too?” he’d asked.

  At the time she was nonplussed but had come to understand exactly what he’d meant by the comment. Impatiently, she watched main shields slowly form and strengthen around Dauntless.

  Like all Navy ships, Dauntless had three shield types. Wall and radiation shields protected against micro-meteorites, particle weapons, and radiation, whilst main shielding was used to absorb, deflect or slow missiles and railgun slugs. Wall and radiation shields were maintained at all times, whereas due to their power drain, main shields were only used during combat and took several minutes to reach maximum effectiveness.

  Not wishing to talk to Captain Miller, Frith asked her First Officer to remind him the Navy wasn’t a debating society and his ships shields were to be raised immediately.

  Harris’s fighters were now at an optimum distance from the fleet, taking station to starboard, at the point their AI’s had calculated to be the best sentry position for her squadron to follow. Poised to transmit further information, she was surprised when her AI began reporting multiple readings from its close range mass sensor, immediately confirmed by matching readings from the other fighters in her squadron.

  “This isn’t good,” she thought to herself, as the number of unknown ships rose sharply. Although she knew her sensor telemetry was automatically being sent to both Captain Woods and the Flagship, it was hard to resist the urge to comment as the readings began resolving into hard numbers.

  On Dauntless, a concerned Admiral Frith was back on the bridge within moments of the news, her mind racing through options before discarding them as more information continued to come in. Of one thing she was certain; there had been too many coincidences recently for this to be harmless, so she gave the order for sensors to go active and damn the consequences. Standing next to her First Officer, they looked together at the “ta
nk,” which was updating new sensor readings into red shapes as active sensors resolved them into ships.

  Dauntless’ AI emotionlessly read out the facts, “Fifty-two capital ships, two carriers, thirty-seven frigates. Exact configuration unknown but they resemble modified standard Imperial Navy classes. Range two thousand four hundred miles. We are being actively scanned, detecting weapons lock and incoming fire. Task force AI’s advised and standing by, awaiting response.”

  Frith and her First Officer looked at each other for a second before she nodded to him and he spoke to the AI, transmitting his words to all the other ships.

  “Assume hostile, link for firing solutions and navigation but take any targets of opportunity, all ships hard to port at two-G acceleration. Move ships into position Beta and head back to the Jump Point.”

  Frith was still thinking furiously, running options through the ships AI with her implant, looking for an answer. Out-numbered at least four to one, her force could not face a pitched battle with the enemy. Powerful as her ships were and capable of destroying a significant portion of the opposing fleet, eventually they would succumb to superior firepower and numbers. At long range, rail-guns were little use against a moving or accelerating target and EM based weaponry was effective only to a thousand miles or closer. If her summary was correct, Woods fighters would come under missile attack within seconds, followed by Dauntless shortly after that. Should the enemy try and capture her flagship it would confirm they had been set up and were after her Emperor, in all probability by the same people that arranged the ambush on Heaven.

  The enemy fleet had obviously been stealthed and waiting for them, knowing in advance their likely time of Jumping and target. Given those two bits of information, their course would have been easy to plot, allowing them to wait with weapons ready until her task force came into range. It was only blind chance that the fighters mass sensors had sensed them before the trap was completely sprung. With main shields down while running in stealth mode, both her fleets would have been severely damaged before being able to respond.

  Frith called Alexander, who had been waiting patiently, not wishing to disturb her concentration. He responded immediately and she began setting out their options. She respected the Emperor had waited and hadn’t tried to interfere or demand information, letting her focus on the current situation. He asked what their position was.

  “Sire, we had three choices. Firstly, stay and fight. Not a smart idea given how badly outnumbered we are. Second, turn to starboard, go to flank speed and power right through their fleet and head for the Jump point, but that leaves us open to boarding and suicide runs, plus makes us very vulnerable to enemy fire. The one I’ve chosen is the third. Turn sharply to port and accelerate at two-G for a time before decelerating hard for the Jump, strengthening our aft shields. Unless their fleet is made up of individuals from high-G worlds that can stand higher acceleration than we can, they won’t be able to stop some of us from reaching the Jump Point.”

  The Emperor said nothing for a few heartbeats then nodded in agreement. “Agreed. Someone’s been trying very hard to get at me, haven’t they Admiral?”

  “Yes, they have, Sire. If Captain Woods hadn’t launched those reconnaissance fighters, we wouldn’t have seen them until it was too late for us to do anything except run the gauntlet. You’re right, someone really wants you dead or captured.”

  Alexander smiled. “They’ll just have to get in the queue. I’ll be joining my bodyguard to assist should we need to repel boarders, but with a bit of luck, it won’t come to that. Vimes and the ships AI will keep me informed of developments. Be lucky, Janice.”

  With that he broke contact, switching to talk to his bodyguard and Dauntless’ Marine Captain.

  On the bridge of INS Courageous, Captain Woods only had a thirty-second warning before impacts began registering on his ships, rocking the carrier through its still forming main shields which, as a result, began glowing brightly at the impact points. Grateful now for previously having spent many hours running through multiple scenarios with Courageous’s AI and his First Officer, Commander Markham, he instructed his ships to act. Knowing the starboard screening fighters were all now effectively lost, he instructed them to target the closest capital ship of the enemy and begin a suicide run. Watching the fighters accelerate away, Woods had a moment of inspiration and quickly instructed the AI to take over control and launch every remaining fighter, including those still on board, on a suicide run towards the enemy, hoping this might gain the fleet vital seconds when the incoming fighters distracted the attacking force.

  Judging by the rate at which his shields and point defences were being depleted, Captain Woods thought it only a matter of time before he would be totally reliant on covering fire from his three Interdiction Frigates and the two battleships. The new instructions from Admiral Frith to turn portside made perfect sense and gave him a better chance of survival than simply trying to plough through the enemies’ centre, for he doubted his carrier would survive the experience. As his force was still a thousand miles ahead of the main group, a fair proportion of enemy fire would have initially been directed at his ships, drawing some away from the flagship.

  Thinking quickly, Woods gave instructions that once the last fighter had cleared their decks, the four main hangers were to split from the main hull and fight individually. That done, he switched his attention towards the remaining three hundred and eighty fighters which were now beginning their suicide run towards the enemy fleet. At the same time, he wondered whether his unorthodox idea to use than in this way would ever become known as the Woods Gambit. Suddenly, a massive impact violently shook the bridge and threw him off his feet to the deck. Hitting his head hard on the floor, he felt himself blacking out but not before regretting not getting into his command chair.

  For Squadron Leader Harris, piloting her fighter from inside a combat pod, her first real fighter mission as Squadron Leader was certainly proving to be a memorable one. Long range particle beam weapons had begun searching out her fighters, destroying four of them before their AI’s or pilots could react. Her squadron had then been taken out of manual control by the carriers AI and accelerated at one hundred-G towards the lead capital ships. At that acceleration, the life of her fighter’s engines and spaceframe would only be measured in minutes anyway, but would allow the fighters to build up a reasonable velocity in the short distance to the enemy. Now unable to control or influence her fighter in any way, she watched as it manoeuvred around, trying to evade the incoming missiles and point defences, as it made its final approach to the lead ship at almost fifty-one miles per second.

  Suddenly, her screen went white and her canopy opened, causing her to blink and squint at the sudden bright light and noise of the alert. All around the control room, she watched the canopies of her squadron lift and the pilots emerge, shaking their heads when asked in turn if their fighter had managed to successfully hit any of the enemy ships.

  Climbing out of her own cockpit and looking through the readouts that her command implant was now sending to her, she was impressed with the Captains quick thinking in using the fighters in such an unorthodox manoeuvre. Beneath her feet she could feel the carrier’s shields begin taking multiple missile hits, their kinetic force being absorbed and converted into heat and energy. Increasingly, some were getting through, juddering the ship and vapourising large areas of the armoured hull and point defences. Inevitably, she knew the more this happened the fewer point defences would be left to destroy the missiles before they impacted on the shields, a vicious downwards spiral until Courageous was at the mercy of her attackers.

  Using her newly uprated command implant, Harris checked for instructions with the ships AI and discovered all the other fighters had or were in the process of being launched. Her squadron was instructed to report to the nearest muster station and don armoured suits before the ship accelerated to two-G. As she ran with them to the muster point, Harris was just thinking she’d had enough of being shot
at without the chance to shoot back, when a massive jolt disrupted the artificial gravity for a second and threw everyone violently around the corridor.

  Emergency lighting came on briefly until main power was restored a few moments later. Her pilots began getting up from the floor, looking at each other and sharing nervous glances, knowing full well their carrier had just taken a major hit somewhere. Harris quickly scanned her squadron for injuries, mentally crossing everyone off before instructing them to keep moving towards the Marine muster station where suits and weapons would be issued to them. The normally clean, sweet air of the ship was becoming tinged with the acrid smell of burnt insulation and hot metal, overlaid with subtle mood enhancers as the AI tried to reduce the effects of stress amongst the crew. Dozens of other pilots from other redundant squadrons began joining her own, all running in the same direction, not trusting the transit tubes in case they failed.

  To Friths left, Dauntless’s Weapon Masters were providing firing and defence solutions for her consideration along with the Cyber Warfare team who were attempting to disrupt the enemies’ sensors and missile telemetry. Frith watched as Woods task force began turning away from its original course and accelerate to port along with the rest of her fleet, taking a course which would ensure the two converged before they all reached the Jump Point. She was extremely gratified to see her faith in Captain Woods confirmed by the innovative use of his fighters and promised herself to accelerate his testing; if they survived, of course. The tank showed INS Diamond had been crippled and venting atmosphere, but was still managing to keep up with the other ships. Sadly, in light of the pounding it was taking, she knew it was only a matter of time before either its drive engines or armoured hull gave out completely.

  Sadly, at that moment the simulacrum representing INS Diamond flashed brightly in the tank, quickly becoming a receding black mark, confirming her analysis of the situation. She closed her eyes for a second and breathed out, thinking of the men and women dying on the doomed ship. The AI confirmed several hundred missiles had coordinated their attack on Diamond so they hit the same point, with at least fifty getting through her shields to detonate their warheads amidships, cutting the Interdiction frigate in two. The two halves were continuing to maintain fire at a reduced rate and she could see life pods being launched. With no chance of being picked up by her Taskforce, she knew those poor souls were either fated to die in space or be taken prisoner.