After the Garodens had left, it had taken the humans almost a year to disrupt all the wormhole threads leading back to Earth, and to form new ones around the newly named Sol 2 system.
Now in 2313, Earth ships could jump directly to Sol 2 from Earth, then destroy all the wormhole threads they had created that would otherwise enable the aliens to trace them back to Earth.
The greatest advance since 2309, was in the Warp and predictive movement targeting acquisition systems. Now, Earth ships could jump much larger distances, with mind-boggling accuracy, than ever before.
Fifteen days earlier, the Earth Starship Scimitar and her companion vessel, the Alexander, had been destroyed during a battle near the Wolf 363 Star system.
Since then, the cruiser Caspian had returned from picking up the Scimitar’s survival shuttle. Winton had been thankful there were so many survivors. But, sadly, none from the Alexander. He also felt sorry for Captain Prince having lost his wife Carrie when the Alexander was destroyed. Still, that was war.
Now, two new Navy Battleships, the Revenge, and Harbin were about to join Jefferson’s group in the HD 75289 system which was in the Constellation of Vela.
These two Battleships had been built at the Mars construction facilities. While a third ship, the Carrier Lexington, had been constructed at a new shipyard complex close to Jupiter. With a vast amount of the necessary materials that were required by the shipyard being mined from the Jovian Asteroids, and by robotic mining of the three Moons, Ganymede, Lo, and Europa. While Earth and Mars’s resources were now only a few days’ flight time away from the Jovian group.
Fleet Admiral, Winton, had visited the Jupiter shipyard complex a year earlier, having wanted to see the progress of the Lexington’s build for himself.
Winton had been impressed. The Lexington was certainly massive. He’d particularly appreciated the two hanger decks, that he could see were now on one side of the hull. This design had only been made possible by the fact that the carrier didn’t need propulsion units, as all its motion functions were provided by the warp and skipper drives. Thankfully, the Lexington’s build program had recently been completed, and the carrier was now undergoing acceptance trials.
But, the Lexington would not arrive for another two weeks.
Winton was on Jefferson’s bridge gazing out of the window at Sol 2’s terrestrial planet that was slowly revolving below them. When two faint flashes, far away, caught his eye as the Battleships, Revenge and Harbin exited warp over four hundred kilometers out.
Winton could only just make them out, as two tiny yellow-orange dots, with his naked eye. With the dots, beginning to swell then becoming clearer as both ships slowly moved toward Winton’s group of ships. Until, finally, the Revenge and Harbin came to a halt, some seventy kilometers from the Jefferson.
Then Winton’s eyes involuntarily blinked, as two bright flashes signified the demise of both battleships wormhole exit- threads.
In the meantime, Captain Garret, and the Ship’s science officer, Lieutenant Farrow, were receiving update information on the two new Battleships.
Winton studied the large Holographic projection that had appeared directly above his console. He could see his ships and Sol 2 plainly enough.
But, the relative location of the main Garoden fleet only showed as a red dot. And, even though, the Garoden fleet had been stationary since the loss of the Cruisers, Scimitar, and Alexander. The reasons for this perplexed and worried him. What the hell are they waiting for, he kept asking himself.
At the last count, The Garoden ships had totaled forty-three. And, even though no more had arrived so far. Right now, the Navy was outnumbered seven to one.
He knew the Crillon’s fleets were on the back foot, but at least they had notched up the destruction of three Garoden Star Destroyers. Whereas, they hadn’t been able to destroy any.
Nevertheless, Winton took comfort in the fact that the Garoden’s disruptor screen could be overcome, if you could get a nuke to explode just on its perimeter. Then instantly follow up with a continuous bombardment of particle beams aimed at the depletion area caused by the nuke’s detonation pressure wave.
Even so, he knew he was clutching at straws. He was aware that Earth and Crilla’s scientists were already making some progress in combatting the Garoden’s disruptor screen, with modified protective screens of their own. However, they were a long way from overcoming the problem.
Winton’s comms beeped as the Battleship Harbin made contact.
“Good day Admiral. I’m Captain Sota.”
Fleet Admiral Christopher Winton was surprised, on hearing the greeting. Not realizing that Harbin’s Chinese Captain spoke almost perfect English. Then remembered that the communication system’s Chinese translation program would have automatically corrected any accent deviation in his language.
“Glad to finally get some reinforcements, Captain Sota. Please link your AI into the command grid.”
Captain Sota didn’t reply, he just smiled.
“Do all Chinese Captains smile like you?” Winton asked, then realized that his attempt at a joke was ill-conceived.
“Sorry Admiral. My AI’s linking now,” The captain replied while ignoring Winton’s remark.
“Admiral, we have four WEP units on board. And Revenge’s Captain Bridger has another four on his ship,” he told Winton.
‘WEP, what on earth is a WEP?’ Winton muttered under his breath while feeling annoyed with himself for not knowing what these were.
“I see we only have five ships here, now, Admiral. Six, when the Carrier Lexington arrives, but she’ll have her own support systems in any case,” Sota remarked.
“She’s been redirected to the Michigan’s Group, Captain Sota.”
“Oh, so we’ll just have the five that are here now. Is that correct?”
“Afraid so.”
Very well, we’ll retain two WEP’s. Bridger will keep two, the other four will be allocated between your three ships, Admiral,” Captain Sota suggested.
By now, Captain Garret and Lieutenant Farrow had left their stations and joined Winton.
Winton killed the comms link to Sota.
“Lieutenant Gort. Do you know what the hell a WEP is?” Winton angrily growled, more at the lack of his own knowledge than anything else.
“Yes Admiral,” Lieutenant Gort eagerly replied. “It’s a powered weapons attack drone. With its own dedicated AI control.”
Gort then leaned over Winton’s shoulder and tapped in his own weapons code to bring up the information and Control protocols on Winton’s screen that Captain Sota had just transmitted to his console.
All three studied the image of a WEP while its specifications, and full data on the unit, slowly scrolled down the right-hand side of Winton’s screen.
They could see that the WEP drone was cylindrical in shape, and, at its widest, some 30metres in diameter. The bulbous drive section was at the rear. While the weapons containment section encircled the unit towards the pointed front section of the hull.
From the front of the WEP unit, four pylon-shaped objects, protruded some ten meters in front of the drone’s hull. These were evenly spaced around the hull section in a box formation and were the drone’s particle beam emitters.
“Is that it?” Winton asked, clearly disappointed at the drone’s apparent lack of, well, lack of anything useful as far as he could see.
Lieutenant Farrow seemed disappointed as well.
“Okay,” Gort said, trying to sound confident. “So, it can’t jump. Its maneuverability is somewhat lacking. It doesn't have stealth capability,” he stated, then paused briefly before continuing.
“However, looking on the bright side. As I see it. It’s AI will work out the best attack strategy from your instructions. And, the WEP’s are expendable.”
“Gort’s right about that. They must be a lot cheaper to produce, Admiral,” Farrow said. “Looking at the power rating ratio, to size, I reckon we could build thirty to forty of these for the cos
t of one Battleship.”
Winton didn’t reply, he just looked at Farrow.., then his comms beeped as Ensign Childs, Jefferson’s Comms Officer came online.
“Admiral. The captain of the Revenge is calling.”
“Right,” Winton said, then dismissed Lieutenant Gort and Farrow who returned to their stations.
“Link,” Winton ordered.
“Good day Admiral. Captain Tom Bridger at your service.”
Winton stared at the Holoprojection above his console. He had never met Captain Bridger before. But the man standing behind Bridger looked familiar, though he couldn’t recollect from where.
“Welcome to our group Captain,” Winton acknowledged. “And, the man behind you, is?”
“I’m Ned Parker, Admiral.” The man answered. “Professor Ned Parker of Andromeda’s Quantum Theoretical Engineering department.”
Winton was amazed to hear this. “My understanding was that Andromeda and the Neutron were both, toast?”
Ned Parker looked visibly upset on hearing the Admiral’s words.
“Bad phrasing Admiral... Both ships are… well, the Andromeda is… But Captain Richardson took the Neutron to try….,” he started to explain, then stopped. Clearly still affected by Andromeda’s demise.
“I’m afraid the Crillon fleet five’s Commander, Procard, arrived too late to save Andromeda… Still, we all knew that the attempt on the Garoden home world was a gamble,” he continued, then paused again.
“But, Procard brought the rest of us back to Earth, via Crilla.”
“Um, yes. I can see your pain….err… Ned,” Winton hastily replied.
“Sorry Admiral… We don’t exactly know what happened to Frank Richardson, or to the Solveron Captain Sitrea.
But, we are unfortunately aware that the Garodens still have their Companion brains.”
“So, in that respect, the mission failed, Ned,” Winton commented. Then asked the question that had been playing on his mind since Andromeda’s captain Richardson had dumped the two useless dignitaries on his ship.
“Ned. Richardson’s two so-called assets… Where are they now?”
“No one knows. The two girls simply disappeared just after we found out what powered the Garoden’s companion brains.”
“So, the assets literally dumped Humanity?”
“No. I’m sure that’s not the case, Admiral…, After all, they were with the Andromeda for quite a long time, during which the two of them enhanced the capability of both Frank and Susanna’s minds… They made them…,” he started, then stopped, seemingly lost for words for a moment.
“No, Admiral. I believe the two girls, the uh assets, still need us, for some reason or other.”
“Maybe….” Ned started to suggest, when Anna, Jefferson’s AI, broke in.
“Admiral. The Garoden fleet’s formation is changing, but our sensors can’t separate the ships enough to know why they are moving. However, they don’t seem to be leaving.”
“Maybe they’ve been waiting for reinforcements, and they’re about to arrive,” Gort suggested.
“Argonaut,” Winton called over the open ‘all-ships’ link. “Captain Serrell, is there any way your science team can improve the resolution of Anna’s sensors, to visually separate the Garoden ships?” There was a slight pause before Serrell replied.
“No Admiral. They’ve set some form of interference. It’ll take some time for us find out how to suppress the interference.”
“Well. Try to do just that, Captain.”
“Will do, sir.”
“Good.” Winton acknowledged. Then turned back to Ned. “We’ll talk later,” he told him. Then re-focused his attention on the coming battle.
“Anna, make sure all ships are up to speed with the latest data and get those WEPs transferred, prepped and synced to weapons command.
Lieutenant Farrow, prepare a Probe and let’s see what the Garoden Ships are up to, close-up.”
“Yes Admiral,” his science officer said, as he leaped into action.
“Lieutenant Gort.”
“Yes, Admiral?”
“Link your weapon’s AI scenarios with the new ships.”
“On it Admiral.”
“All ships,” Winton called. “Battle ready and sync tactical, now,” he ordered.
Winton knew that their past engagements with Garoden ships had proved invaluable in providing them with technical, information on the alien’s ships. And, had served them well in improving their operational strategies.
They had also been able to locate the weak spots in the Garoden’s protective screen, which had enabled them to decide where best to hit the Garoden ships to give Earth’s Battleships a chance.
However, Winton also appreciated that the Michigan’s group of ships were dangerously vulnerable. In that, there was only one Battleship, with that being the Michigan itself.
Unfortunately, the Michigan had nowhere near Jefferson’s firepower. While their only Carrier, the Lexington, was currently completing its acceptance trials and wasn’t expected to join them for another twelve or so days.
Even so, when they found out what the Garodens were waiting for, he would almost certainly have to divert the Lexington, to beef-up the Michigan’s Group.
On top of this, the Illustrious, Turpin, and Repulse which had formerly been loosely classed as battleships, had recently been downgraded to Heavy Cruisers.
Winton sighed. He’d tried to block out the painful destruction of the Scimitar and Alexander. The loss of their crews had hit him hard.
‘I’m getting soft,’ he thought to himself. Then, ‘No, just human,’ Winton decided.
Then Admiral Winton started thinking about the Probe. He hoped the Probe would give the Earth ships a short, but valuable glimpse of the deployment of the Garoden fleet. He knew the sequence of events.
The Jefferson would generate the micro-wormhole for the probe. But, as the probe had no warp capability of its own, it would emerge within the general location of the Garoden fleet. Then scan, and transmit its results back to them, via Hyperlink. Before self-destructing itself.
“Ready to launch, Admiral,” Lieutenant Farrow stated.
“Launch probe,” he then ordered.
Chapter 4
Crillon Battle-Group 63
Four Crillon Battle Cruisers dropped out of Hyperspace into normal space. Freed for the moment, from the second ferocious and devastating battle they had gone through in the last five hours.
Crillon Commander Tannic’s nerves were shot. His battle-weary group had been fighting their second rear-guard action in a row, against a very determined group of Garoden Star Destroyers.
Even though they had started off with the usual complement of twelve Battle Cruisers. Nothing had gone their way, with his fleet commander’s ship and two others, lost in the very first engagement.
Since then, as next in Command, Tannic had been trying to shake off the pursuing Garoden ships. But, every time his group had managed to jump to safety, the Garodens had somehow succeeded in tracking his ships down. And, with every action, it had cost Tannic. Two ships in his first Command encounter, and during the last battle another three ships were lost, leaving him just four.
Furthermore, even though the molecular-disrupter part of the Garoden ships protective screens, didn’t seem to be working correctly, he had only managed to destroy one Garoden ship so far. Tannic sighed, reluctantly accepting the fact that the situation had worsened, with odds of at least eight-to-one favoring the Garodens.
“Give me your status. Quickly,” Tannic ordered his remaining ship’s Commanders. Then waited as data from all four Crillon ships rapidly downloaded to both his and Science officer Dranton’s tactical pads.
“Not good Commander,” Denton almost mumbled as each ship’s damage control department’s status evaluations, and event predictions, scrolled across their tactical displays.
“No antimatter and no nukes left on any ships, Commander,” Tannic’s weapons officer reported.
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br /> “Particle beam cannons only, then,” Commander Tannic said, stating the obvious. “Time remaining for the jump drive to recharge?” He asked.
“Five minutes, thirty seconds, Commander,” Science officer, Dranton replied, after having double checked the stats.
Just then, the ship’s tactical AI interrupted them.
“Two Garoden Star Destroyers exiting warp. Eleven kilometers. Dead ahead.”
“One behind the other, Commander,” Dranton reported. “First one shows some battle damage. They’re going to come straight at us.”
“I see them…” Commander Tannic confirmed.
“Box-Box. Now,” Tannic ordered his ships, realizing this was the only course of action open to them.
Box-Box was a formation that would enable the Crillon ships to virtually encircle the Garoden ships. This, then gave Weapons a chance to damage the enemy’s ships, by using fire power from all sides, as the Garoden ships passed through the box.
On receiving the Box-Box command, all four ship’s sub-light drives burst into life, moving them forward and into the predetermined box formation, as they went.
“Engage, now,” Tannic ordered, as their box formation started to pass over the first Garoden ship.
Then, Particle beams from all four of his ships stabbed at the first Garoden ship’s protective screen, sending raw energy swirling around her. At the same time preventing the Garoden’s weapons from being effective.
“Our shields are down to sixty-five percent,” the AI warned.
“No matter, their screen is collapsing,” Lieutenant Dranton yelled as they saw flashes from force field emitters along the Garoden ship’s hull.
The Garoden War. (SpaceFed StarShips Series) Book 7. An exciting, action-packed SpaceFed Series finale that also concludes the Garoden War.: ‘Military Gamble.’ Page 3
