“Captain, what about the Carronade and the boarding party?” Alister asked, concerned about not only his friends, but also all of the other crewmen.
“Chief Parker, recall Mister Collins and the shuttle,” the first officer ordered.
“We’ve got trouble! An enemy squadron has entered the system, everyone back to the shuttle,” Mike ordered.
The boarding party had just started to utilize the plasma torch and the laser welder on the wall of ice. The hall had been sealed from space and life support was now functioning within the immediate area.
As the men rushed to carry the equipment back to the Carronade, Martin and Rufo continued to work at the control panel.
“I think we can access the internal comm. system and try to contact the engine room. If there is anyone alive they’ll be able to hear us.”
“Make it fast, we’ve got seven enemy ships closing on the Wolf,” Mike said as he waved off several of his men and took the plasma torch from the crewman who was carrying it. “Mister Rabb, get them back to shuttle,” he ordered, as he fired up the torch and went to work on the ice wall.
Rabb didn’t like that order, “Everyone back to the shuttle,” he repeated, taken up the laser welder and joining the senior lieutenant at the melting wall.
Mike shook his head, but smiled, “I’ll have you on report.”
“No sir, you said get them back, but nothing was said telling me to leave,” the middy corrected, being the academy’s resident barracks lawyer.
“I stand corrected.”
A loud static noise made them pause as they looked to the comm. panel.
“We’ve got something,” Rufo said, with a big grin.
Mike moved to the panel and touched the link, “This is Lt. Collins of the ISS Star Wolf,” he said pausing for response. Thirty seconds passed without a reply. “Is anyone in there? This is Lt. Collins of the Confederation Attack Cruiser Star Wolf.”
“Damn it!” Cappilo cried as he slammed his fist against the wall.
Mike started a third call, but Martin placed his hand on his shoulder, “We’ve got to go, sir,” he said pulling him away.
Giving into the inevitable and he let himself be guided away, “Right, lets go!”
The four young men grabbed the equipment and turned to leave as a faint call for help came over the ship’s link.
It was a mad rush as they raced back to comm. panel. Even though Mike was the furthest away he reached it two steps before the rest. His sudden speed surprised even his friends.
“This is Lt. Collins of the ISS Star Wolf, is anyone there?”
“Yes, we have twenty-eight crewmen trapped in here. Four of my men are badly wounded,” a female voice reported, sounding weak and tired.
“Hang on, we’ll get you out,” Mike said and then turned to the others. “Get two squads back here right now and let the Wolf know what’s happening on a secure channel.”
People rushed to grab tools and get help as he opened the link and talked to the woman on the other side.
Minutes later he was on the link talking to the cruiser.
“Momma Wolf, this is Timber Wolf One,” Mike said, after Martin insured him that the comm. channel was on a scrambled channel carried by a focused narrow beam signal.
“We have twenty-eight survivors, but they are still trapped, can you buy us any time?”
Surprisingly, it was the captain’s voice that responded.
“This is Papa Wolf One, we’ll buy you as much time as we can, maintain communications silence and stay hidden until we give you the all clear.”
“Roger Papa Wolf One, Timber Wolf One out and good luck,” he said, thinking that he should have said good luck first and then out.
Looking to the ice wall, he saw his men hacking at it with ship swords while the plasma torch and laser welder made it thinner by the moment. Tempus Fugit he thought - time was fleeting.
The Star Wolf moved away from the debris field and waited for the enemy ships to get closer. They wanted maneuvering room and to insure that a stray shot wouldn’t hit the Alamo. They also didn’t want the enemy ships to get the impression that they were doing anything, but looking around.
It took time for the enemy ships to close the distance and as each minute ticked by the Wolf’s plan of battle was becoming clearer. Hope had no delusions about how this had to be fought. He had no tricks or surprise attacks instead he had to fight a straight up, nose-to-nose, muzzle-to-muzzle gunfight.
He was outgunned three to one, but only the battle destroyer had a spinal weapon that could render his ship into molten slag. That is if they could hit him. A spinal weapon had to be aimed by turning the entire ship and could be easily predicted. Karduan spinal weapons also took almost twice as long to recharge and that gave him a slight edge.
Of course the battle destroyer had the help of two standard destroyers each with the firepower of a Confederation light cruiser. Except for a spinal mounted particle cannon, a particle turret and couple fusion turrets, the destroyers had the same punch as the Wolf. Their job would be to come at the Wolf from either side and try to force the attack cruiser into the killing field of the battle destroyer. The battle destroyer was better than an even money fight. The attack cruiser was faster and more maneuverable and in a system clustered with planets, satellites, and wreckage that might be a deciding factor.
Hope’s problem was that if he strayed too far from the Alamo he couldn’t protect them if his boarding party were detected. If he stayed he’d limit his ability to fight and possibly clue the Kardies into what they were doing. He was risking the entire crew and the ship by standing toe-to-toe with the oncoming ships.
“Mister Dover, full reverse,” the captain ordered and then added, “Lets draw them away.” It was a gamble, one in which he was betting the lives of the boarding party.
Alister wanted to turn his head and look at the older officer, but he understood the situation and the limited possibilities. Mike had made the call to stay and help the trapped Alamo’s crew, to do that he accepted the risks that came along with it. Hope was making the exact same call - to pull away from the damaged frigate and risk their lives to possibly save them all.
The Hawk had made his decision.
“Helm, be prepared for high speed turns and keep our nose forward. When the enemy ships are in range the destroyers will split to port and starboard to keep us from slipping past their battle destroyer. When that happens, I’ll want all missile turrets and torpedo tubes - port and starboard to lock on the destroyer on their respective sides and fire. Spinal cannon and main turrets will concentrate on the battle destroyer.”
“Time until within range?” Richards asked.
“Five minutes and they’ll be in our spinal cannon’s range,” the maser station reported. The Wolf’s main gun had the range advantage and that would with any luck be able to sway the battle.
Listening to the captain’s plan and its reliance on superior tactics and technical advantages made Mister Dover think of what had saved humanity from an earlier destruction at the pale hands of the Blues.
These were the same advantages that had kept Earth from losing the initial battles in the Blues War. Whereas the Karduans had been fighting amongst themselves since the fall and removal of their Vorooshin masters, mankind had been busy in a different way. Earth, lead by the symbolic American King, had rebuilt itself from its brief stint as slaves to the reptiles. This was the second time in the last several decades that the people of Earth had been through a savage and life shattering war.
The first had been called the Apocalypses War in which all Earth had faced yet another World War. It had started in the Far East and had embroiled that region so badly that the United States had to intervene. Europe and the Middle East ignited into social and racial unrest, and were soon facing civil and open warfare. In the end America led a coalition to victory, but at a cost. Nuclear, biological and early orbital energy weapons had been utilized and over a third of Earth’s population lay dea
d.
Not since the Black Death had humanity seen such whole scale death and destruction. To make matters worse the American infrastructure had been damaged by disease and death, which led to a civil war. The American army worn and exhausted from fighting in Eastern Europe and Asia had returned home to find the radioactive remains of Washington D.C. and the central government shattered.
Governors and powerful warlords had risen from the ashes of the fire. Many had their own political, racial or religious agendas and were unwilling return to the pre-war system of government. It took a strong if reluctant general to reforge a new America based on the same principals of life, liberty and freedom.
Later, he would be compared to George Washington, guiding and uniting the American people back to the democracy they loved and cherished. Though he, unlike General Washington, would accept the title of King of America, temporally ruling by force of arms and iron will.
He was also like Washington and the Roman general that he was always compared to Cincinnatus, would step down from power returning the government to the people. After years of warfare, along with political and literal in fighting he had reestablished American democracy and the U.S. Constitution.
In such a system a king was impractical and unwanted, but the American people and even the world had owned this savior a debt and the title of King of American would be granted to the self-deposed monarch by Constitutional Amendment.
Life on Earth had after twenty years of suffering slowly returned to normal only to once more be thrown into upheaval by invasion from outer space. The Voroosh or Reds as they would be called due to their reddish scales, had stolen interstellar drives and advanced weapons from their diminutive Kazad slaves. They had quickly defeated the disorganized forces of the Earth and had enslaved the world.
Once more the King of America and his family would resist such slavery and would lead a rebellion against these new foes. In a few short years Earth’s soldiers led by the King’s eldest son, called “the Black Prince” would defeat the Voroosh.
Their defeat was in part due to the aid of Kazad who had genetically altered many captured human soldiers making them stronger and faster than anything people had seen before. These supermen or altered had led a revolt on a Vorooshin slave world, fighting their way out of the gladiatorial death games and escaped by stealing a starship. With the aid of the Kazad they then had managed to capture a newly Kazad made battle cruiser called the Black Star. With this powerful ship they had defeated the Vorooshin ships and finally liberated Earth.
The grateful people of Earth bestowed the title of Emperor on the reluctant King of America and with his guidance they had set up a world government based on democracy. The threat from space had made the people set aside many of their differences to finally unite. Once the democratic system of the Confederation had reached a level of maturity and stability the Emperor had again stepped down turning power over to an elected Prime Minister and the Confederation Senate.
In sadden outrage the people of Earth and many governmental leaders fearful of tyranny insisted that he retain emergency wartime powers and a legislative veto, one that he had since never used.
As Earth settled into peace they also prepared for war. The Emperor quoting George Washington insisted that taxes be used to create a larger space defense fleet. This continued the already blustering space industry, which the emperor’s family had the lion’s share of control and profits from.
For the next fifty years the colonization of new worlds had become a boom industry with every nation, corporation and religious group quickly becoming involved. Everyone was either buying or hiring ships to explore space in search of profitable and inhabitable worlds. Such a fleet as what the emperor had proposed was a necessity, but only half the number of warships were actually constructed. Most had been built and financed by the Emperor’s own company, the Ameri-Corporation.
These ships were in Earth’s service, but were technically still owned by the King of America. Many corporations, nations and even religious groups had also financed the building of starships to protect their various interests. Still, when trouble came they were outnumbered at least four to one.
Luckily, humans were ever improving their technology and after thousands of years of warfare they had well developed ideas of weapons and military tactics.
The matriarchal Karduan society had been slaves to the Voroosh for over a hundred years. The once passive and culturally religious people had been transformed into competing matriarchal houses, each trying to please their reptile masters usually at the expense of their fellow Blues.
Once the Reds had been defeated and removed to their home world, the Kazad’s urged the Karduans who were now left in charge, to rebuild their shattered society. After a hundred years of slavery, death games and inter-house fighting the once united Karduan people easily fell into civil war.
Their almost fifty years of fighting had been based on the Vorooshin sword system, “The Patar” a narrow thrust and cut blade. When the Karduans had finally ended their bloody civil war they proceeded to explore and expand their new empire of star systems. Probing and destroying Earth’s deep outposts gave them a feel for their next enemy … mankind.
The Karduans had had an overwhelming number of ships, but they had never faced an enemy with thousands of years of battle experience and a long history of warfare. Earth’s fleets had been numerically smaller, but it had several important factors that had turned back the larger Karduan Armada.
The Emperor’s fleet had possessed fighters, missiles and nukes, all of which the Kardies were unfamiliar with and unprepared for. In their earlier encounters they had attacked and defeated merchant ships and had been expecting a much easier conquest.
The Karduans were also still basing most of their technologies on Vorooshin or stolen Kazad science. They hadn’t the history of either conflict or past scientific progression to draw on. The largest Earth ships had gigantic particle cannons built into their vast super structures. These powerful weapons could render a ship in two with a single shot. Those advantages had saved humanity once and now could possibly save the Wolf.
“Enemy ships are in-range of our main gun,” Mister Lewis announced in a steady voice. It was an unnecessary statement as the view screen had a thin dim red lines at the points were each weapons system would be at effective range. As each ship came within range the phase line would glow brighter.
“Sir, I’m detecting an energy buildup from the battle destroyer,” the sensor station reported, “She is preparing to fire her spinal cannon.”
This report was a bit of a shock because they were still two minutes from the Kardie’s effective range.
“Maybe they have improved their gun?” Richard suggested.
Hope didn’t wait to ponder this new information or hesitate to act, he proceeded as planned, “Fire main gun, launch torpedoes and commence firing of all missile batteries.”
Immediately a stream of missiles and four Blitz Krieg torpedoes streak from the Wolf’s launchers and turrets. Dover had already locked on the battle destroyer and touched the fire control pad. He surprised the entire bridge crew as nothing happened, the spinal cannon simply didn’t fire. Alister’s control panel had a flashing red light, which was followed by several more lights until it looked like a Christmas tree.
“What’s the problem, Mister Dover?” Richards asked with more than a little anxiety in his voice.
Before the helmsman could respond the sensor station broke in, “The battle destroyer is firing!”
“Hard to port,” Hope ordered causing Dover to concentrate on turning the large ship.
The Blue’s particle blast shot forth from the muzzle of their ship and streaked towards the attack cruiser. The nimble Wolf danced to her left attempting to evade the fatal strike. Mister Dover’s move would have been a second too late, but fortunately the Karduan shot had lost much of its destructive power and when it struck the edge of the ship it simply rocked the cruiser like a cradle.
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br /> “Fire particle turrets one and two,” Hoped commanded, “Particle turret three lock on the far destroyer and fire. Launch all torpedoes and missiles at the BD. Helm full reverse.”
He was considering closing with the battle destroyer while their main gun recharged, but with just turrets, torpedoes and missiles it was numerical suicide. The other ships would close on him and they’d be dead.
Richards had rushed from the helm to the sensors station trying to find out what the problem was with their main gun.
“They jumped the gun or were expecting us to walk into their fire,” he commented as he passed the captain’s chair referring to the Kardy’s fouled shot.
“Sir, a Blitzen hit and several missile scores on the port destroyer,” sensors reported.
The Blitz Krieg torpedo had a warhead the equivalent of a one-kiloton nuke and enemy ships always tried to take them out even before other missiles. The Blitz Krieg was named after the German tank tactic of lighting war, which was used in World War Two to overwhelm Poland, France and most of Europe.
They were more often simply called Blitzens after the fastest of Santa’s reindeers. The torpedoes had cutting edge avionics and counter warfare software. They were also extremely fast, often getting to a target even before an energy shot or accompanying missiles could hit. This sometimes made them a solitary target for counter batteries to shoot at, but with their extreme speed they tended to counter even that.
“Engineering is reporting that a particle coil has burned out and the main gun will take six hours to repair,” Richards informed, hovering between the communications and sensor stations.
“All weapons keep firing. Mister Dover set a reverse course towards the alpha gravity well. Chief Parker tell the freighters to prepare to bend,” Hope ordered, making a command decision in a split second.
The bridge crew didn’t need to be told what was going on, nor were they asked for their input. Everyone knew the situation, without the spinal cannon there was no doubt of this fight’s outcome. Even if they could outrun and maintain a mobile fight, their freighters were vulnerable and easy targets. It was a wonder that the enemy squadron commander hadn’t sent its two destroyer escorts after them while the cruiser was preoccupied.
The Log of the Gray Wolf (Star Wolf Squadron Book 1) Page 31
