Stellar Fox (Castle Federation Book 2)

by Glynn Stewart

  “Some of these attacks appear to be the same kind of attritional raids we’ve been seeing for the last few months, but at least some of them are real attempts at conquest. Watch your frontiers, people,” she ordered. “I have no intention of yielding any more ground to Walkingstick’s people!”

  The video dissolved into a cascade of what could be tentatively called ‘discussion’ – there were definitely some productive offers and requests of assistance between the Admirals, mixed in with the panic and the shouting.

  Before Tobin could intervene, his implant pinged him and he muted the Q-Com.

  “What is it, Lisa?”

  “Sir, we’ve just received a message from Kematian,” his Intelligence Officer informed him, and he cursed silently. He knew what she was going to say before she even said it.

  “A Commonwealth battle group has arrived. Kematian is under attack.”

  #

  “Are we getting a data feed from the Kematian Navy?” Dimitri asked as he returned to his flag deck. The quiet morning of a few minutes ago was gone now, and his people were busily pulling up channels and linking into the other ships of the Battle Group.

  “We are,” Snapes confirmed. “They’re vectoring Q-probes in closer and moving their fleet out to intercept.”

  “Get me a display,” Dimitri ordered. “Make sure Roberts and Solace are seeing this, as well as the other Captains.”

  “They’re already on the link, sir,” the Lieutenant Commander confirmed. Moments later, the big display in the center of the flag deck lit up with a tactical view of the Kematian system.

  Kem, Kematian’s star, was a K9 orange dwarf with five planets. Kematian itself was the closest planet, with two cold and rocky worlds orbiting outside it that provided raw materials for its industry. Two massive gas giants marked the outer perimeter of the system and helped to extend the gravity well outwards to make the planet hard to reach.

  Two of the KN’s trio of cruisers were in orbit of the planet itself. The other orbited the second planet, Sumber. The display listed numbers of smaller ships, and he noted with a grimace that there were no guardships in the system.

  There were, thankfully, almost a thousand starfighters – but they were an old design. The Kavaleri-type fighter was a fifth-generation design, notably inferior to the Scimitars the Commonwealth would be fielding.

  “What do we know about the Commonwealth’s strength?” Dimitri asked, stepping over to the red splotch on the edge of the display and studying it.

  “We’ve confirmed nine ships,” Snapes told him. “The Kematians are still sorting out details, but it looks like four are hanging back while five move in.” As she spoke, the red splotch resolved into slightly more detail, tags on the individual ships resolving as the group split apart. “Their guess is we’re looking at three transports and a battleship in Force Two on a slow gravity-assist course towards Kematian.”

  “And Force One?” Dimitri eyed the five ships. They were moving quickly for Commonwealth ships, at two hundred and thirty gravities.

  “Acceleration makes them modern units,” she agreed with his own silent assessment. “They haven’t deployed starfighters yet, but Commonwealth doctrine would suggest a roughly even split between starfighters and heavy weapons.

  “Given accelerations, we’re likely to see a mix of Hercules battlecruisers, Saint battleships and Volcano heavy carriers,” she noted. Those were the Commonwealth’s most modern units, twenty million tons and sixty-five million cubic meters apiece. Avalon was bigger and more massive than any of them, but the rest of the Battle Group was the same size or smaller.

  The Kematian Navy, on the other hand, had three Majesty-class cruisers purchased from the Imperium, equivalent to BG 17’s Gravitas. They were ten percent smaller than the Commonwealth ships, with barely three quarters of the mass and firepower.

  Dimitri opened a channel to Roberts.

  “Captain, are you seeing what I’m seeing?”

  “Yes, sir,” Roberts confirmed. “It looks like Force One is intentionally maneuvering to allow the KN to concentrate before engaging. Given what they know, it makes sense, and it helps draw the KN to a position where they can’t intercept Force Two.”

  Looking back at the display, Dimitri realized his Flag Captain was correct. The Kematians would consolidate their forces in about four hours, and unless the Commonwealth launched fighters in the next twenty minutes, Force One wouldn’t engage until after that. If they meant to keep their missiles and fighters together, that clash would likely take place in about six hours.

  But Force One represented the main threat, so the KN had to maneuver to block them. And while they were doing that, Force Two would drop past them and intercept the planet in eight hours, where if Force Two went in with Force One, no landing would take place for half a standard day.

  What the Commonwealth commander didn’t know was that Battle Group Seventeen was on the way – and would arrive in the system in… just over six hours.

  13:00 December 31, 2735 ESMDT

  DSC-078 Avalon¸ Bridge

  Kyle was getting sick of watching battles he couldn’t influence. At least this time, Battle Group Seventeen would arrive before the action was likely to be concluded. Their arrival could – and hopefully would – make a difference in how the Commonwealth forces reacted.

  Tobin had sent up a virtual conference with himself and Sanchez for all of the Group’s Captains and Executive Officers, plus Vice Commodore Stanford as the Group CAG. All ten of them were reviewing the same tactical display of the system, watching the icons of the various forces in play.

  The Kematian Navy was completing its rendezvous, with just under twelve hundred starfighters forming into a defensive sphere around the three cruisers. They were now vectoring away from both their homeworld and Force One, trying to draw the Commonwealth into a stern chase.

  It was a stern chase the Commonwealth force’s faster, more modern, ships would win. Three Volcano-class carriers and two Saint-class battleships followed the Kematians, and they’d already deployed over six hundred Scimitars between them.

  For the moment, both fleets were keeping their starfighters close to hand, though that would likely end before Avalon and her companions entered the system.

  Meanwhile, Force Two had accelerated its approach towards the planet. A single Resolute-class battleship – a last-generation ship, but still modern – escorted the three assault transports as all of them made an easy hundred gravities toward Kematian.

  It was pretty clear Force Two believed Force One could take the Kematians, and Kyle had to admit they were probably right. The Scimitars were more than a match for the Kavaleris one on one, and while they couldn’t take them at two to one odds, they could definitely keep them from closing with the Commonwealth ships.

  Once those two Saints with their megaton-range positron lances ranged on the Kematian ships the battle was over. With the newer ships’ heavier weapons and heavier deflectors, they had the locals outranged by the best part of a light second.

  Of course, Battle Group Seventeen could change that entire calculation – and they would arrive in slightly less than an hour.

  “We need to concentrate our forces, combine with the Kematians and pound Force One into debris,” Lord Captain Anders concluded. “With their heavy space power destroyed, Force Two will run – there’s no point in landing troops when we control the skies.”

  “I agree,” Captain Aleppo said after a moment. “Kematian’s orbital defenses are not impregnable, but it would take time for the battleship to wear them down – time our presence denies them.”

  It sounded right, but the thought bothered Kyle. With a mental command, he highlighted the planet’s orbital platforms.

  “If we focus on Force One,” he pointed out, “the entirety of Kematian’s orbital industry and infrastructure are at risk. If they avoid the civilian habitats, it’s a legitimate military target, and one whose destruction would leave us committing even more resources to this sys
tem’s defense.

  “While a Resolute-class battleship lacks the firepower bring down the defenses without time, if they don’t decelerate they’ll pass the planet at a velocity that will make their weapons even more dangerous.

  “If we ignore Force Two, they could destroy Kematian’s economy,” Kyle warned. “I recommend splitting our forces, sir,” he told Vice Admiral Tobin. “We can send two, even three, of Avalon’s Wings after the landing force without compromising our ability to destroy Force One.

  “We could even deploy decoys to make our fighter strength seem larger, and leave them doubting which fighter force is real,” he continued. “It would achieve the goal of making Force One nervous and threatening Force Two.”

  Alstairs whistled softly.

  “That’s not bad, sir,” she added. “Play the cards right, we could leave them guessing to the last minute – might even get both Force One and Force Two to run.”

  “Or we could find ourselves flying right into the teeth of two super-modern battleships without the starfighter strength to press home the assault,” Sanchez objected. “We don’t have a lot of data on the capabilities of the Saints. If Intelligence’s estimates are off, even two fighter Wings could make the difference between a comfortable victory, and a tight-fought one that loses us more ships than we can afford!”

  “You raise a good point, Captain Roberts,” Tobin interjected before he could reply. “It’s a risky plan, though – the kind that looks fantastic on paper but that reality tends to shred.”

  Kyle might have been falsely maligning his Admiral, but he was pretty sure there was a factor of ‘a more experienced officer would know that’ in his words. Though Cameroon’s Captain Alstairs was the most senior Captain in the group by at least two years.

  “The Commonwealth is also unlikely to launch the kind of attack you’re predicting,” Tobin continued. “There is a not-insignificant risk of hitting the habitats or even the planet in that kind of rushed bombardment, and the Terrans tend to shoot officers who hit planets – however accidentally.

  “The simple fact ladies, gentlemen, is that we know Walkingstick is prioritizing inflicting capital ship casualties over anything else. We can sadly afford to lose Kematian’s orbital industry better than we can afford multiple starship losses.

  “We will keep the Battle Group and Commodore Stanford’s fighters together,” the Vice Admiral ordered. “This is a chance to punch out five of the Commonwealth’s shiniest warships. If the Marshal is willing to give me this chance, then I am by God going to take it!”

  Chapter 19

  Kematian System

  14:00 December 31, 2735 Earth Standard Meridian Date/Time

  SFG-001 Actual – Falcon-C type command starfighter

  Almost as soon as the warp bubble around Avalon collapsed, acceleration slammed Michael back into the command seat of his starfighter. The Kematian system resolved into reality around him, and he started checking in with his fighter Wings.

  It took roughly a minute for all of the Battle Group’s fighters to launch into space, and he scanned the numbers. Two hundred and forty from Avalon, eighty from Gravitas – they’d replaced their losses and their commanding officer before BG 17 had left Castle – and forty-eight from Cameron gave him almost three hundred and seventy of the little ships, all seventh-generation spacecraft.

  “Wing leaders, check in,” he ordered.

  “Avalon Alpha here,” Thomas Avignon reported.

  “Bravo on your left,” Russell Rokos chimed in.

  “Charlie’s locked and loaded.”

  “Avalon Delta is looking pretty.”

  “Epsilon online.”

  “Cameroon Wing in position,” Wing Commander Andreas Volte told him.

  “Attack Wing Gravitas online and awaiting your orders,” Lieutenant Colonel Annika Schmidt reported last. She’d been yanked from another Imperial ship in Castle – the one escorting the Ambassador, no less! – to replace Kai Metzger after the Imperials had finally admitted the previous commander had screwed up.

  Michael took a quick moment to review the tactical display now feeding directly to his optic nerves. The Kematian Navy was now outright running in front of the Commonwealth force. The Terrans, unfortunately, edged them by about ten gravities overall – and had a velocity edge of almost ten percent of lightspeed.

  They were in missile range now, and the starfighters had just been sent into the attack. The missiles would follow, though with twelve hundred Kematian starfighters providing cover, they weren’t likely to get through.

  The Commonwealth force seemed willing to play the long game. Every minute that passed got Force Two closer to the planet and, in the end, if the Kematians didn’t get offensive with their starfighters, they couldn’t win.

  Whoever was in charge had to be wondering what the defenders were thinking – the position they’d taken was buying them time, but at the cost of their best chance for victory.

  Of course, the Commonwealth commander didn’t have the advantage of being linked into the system’s sensor net and the Kematian Navy’s sensors by Q-Com. He had to wait for light to reach him at its age-old pace of three hundred thousand kilometers a second.

  Which meant the Terrans would know about Battle Group Seventeen’s arrival roughly… now. Almost as soon as the light would have reached them, the acceleration of the starfighters cut to zero. Moments later, they resumed acceleration – at a rate that would bring them back into company with their warships.

  The Terrans were still going after the defending fleet – but they were being a lot more careful about it.

  “They know we’re coming,” he told his Wing Commanders. “Let’s go say hello, shall we?”

  Moments later, three hundred and sixty eight starfighters fired off their drives and charged the enemy at five hundred gravities.

  #

  Over the next five hours, Michael had a front row seat to a display that would have made any ancient Spanish matador proud.

  Force One’s commander had clearly decided to try to finish off the Kematian Navy before engaging BG 17. Unfortunately, his ten gravity edge in acceleration wasn’t enough to force the three cruisers into range of his battleships, not when they kept adjusting vectors.

  By now, the defenders’ fighter strength had been gutted. Of the twelve hundred four thousand ton ships Kematian had sent out to defend herself, barely three hundred survived – but they’d annihilated the Terran Scimitars.

  It looked like the Kematians’ luck was running out. With most of their fighters gone, the Commonwealth opened up with every missile launcher they had. Fifty missiles blasted into space, followed by fifty more twenty-one seconds later.

  Flight time for the Stormwinds was over fifteen minutes still, but that steady metronome of incoming salvos could easily be too much for the remaining starfighters.

  Of course, Battle Group Seventeen had fired fifty minutes ago, and sixty-five missiles were now burning up behind Vice Commodore Stanford’s starfighters – and with less than fifty starfighters left, Force Two was about to have a very bad day.

  “On my mark,” Michael said calmly. “All fighters fire two salvos. First is to detonate at one hundred thousand kilometers to screw with their sensors for the starships’ missiles. Second is to close and kill.”

  He smiled.

  “We’ll be right behind them.”

  He waited. At the speed they were closing, milliseconds would make the difference – but he was fully linked into his starfighter, and milliseconds were all the time in the world.

  “Mark,” he snapped.

  The rotary launcher the Federation had developed, and the Imperium had ‘borrowed’ – mostly with permission – had a cycle time of a little over four seconds. By the time those seconds had passed, his three hundred and sixty odd ships had thrown over three thousand missiles into space,

  They shot ahead of his ships at a thousand gravities and the Battle Group’s Jackhammers came up behind them, their higher velocities
closing the gaps between the three salvos.

  Seconds ticked by like years. Positron lances started to flash in space around them, the battleships and their carrier charges lighting up space as they tried to destroy missiles and starfighters at maximum range. In theory, the Saint’s one megaton main guns could hit them at this range – but the whole purpose of having a pilot in the expendable little spacecraft was to make them too unpredictable for that.

  Force One had started accelerating directly away from Michael’s people. Not enough to change anything, but enough to allow their lances and defense lasers to have a chance. At the speed they were closing, it changed the time frame by only seconds – but at these speeds, seconds were everything.

  The first salvo detonated exactly on cue, a hundred thousand kilometers clear of the Commonwealth force. The interlaced shockwaves and radiation clouds shot forward, maintaining the velocity of the missiles and filling space with natural jamming.

  On the heels of that chaos came the Falcons and the Battle Group’s Jackhammers. Decoys and even more jamming filled in the space behind the radiation cloud, rendering the empty space a chaotic hell that rivaled the heart of a star for discord and chaos.

  Sixty-five Jackhammer missiles struck from the heart of that cloud of chaos.

  They met the starfighters first. Fifty-four Scimitars remained, and they charged the missiles, lances and defensive lasers flashing into space. The missiles were designed for this, weaving and dodging and scattering electronic signatures across thousands of kilometers.

  Thirty missiles passed through, and then the Terran starfighters passed into range of Stanford’s starfighters. He hadn’t given orders for what to do – he hadn’t needed to. Moments after the Terrans entered his people’s range, they were dead, shredded by four or five positron lances apiece.

  Two of his Falcons died with them, but he forced those feelings aside as the seconds ticked away.