“One of the enemy missiles has just missed us by a couple of klicks, sir,” said McGlashan.
Duggan took stock – the Crimson was at a comparatively low altitude of twenty thousand kilometres above the planet Astorn. The enemy heavy cruiser was above and behind, currently thirty-eight thousand kilometres away. The tactical display showed three waves of enemy missiles were in flight, each consisting of exactly one hundred missiles. The first wave streaked by, this barrage even closer than the last.
“It’s only a matter of time,” said Breeze.
Duggan knew what he wanted to do. “I want the Planet Breaker,” he said.
“It’s not ready, sir,” said McGlashan.
“The Dreamer core will take some time to re-establish its connections with the rest of the onboard systems,” said Breeze. “There’ll be a ramp-up, during which it will became steadily faster until it’s operating at one hundred percent. Having said that, we may not be entirely in the clear.”
“What do you mean?” asked Duggan.
“I have two amber warnings on the core, sir. I’d happily tell you what they mean, but I’ve not seen these ones before.”
“I need more than that. What does it relate to? Weapons? Propulsion?”
“Sorry sir. When things are quiet I’ll dig out the documentation and take a look.”
Duggan wasn’t happy. Although the enemy ship couldn’t directly target the Crimson, it would get them eventually unless it happened to run out of ammunition. On top of that it seemed as if the Crimson’s AI had suffered some kind of damage and he didn’t know if there was any significance to it, or indeed what else might be affected.
While he’d have dearly liked to destroy the communications hub planet, Duggan had to put his crew and their survival first. It was imperative they take the information they’d stolen from the transmission station back to Confederation Space.
“We’ll give up on Astorn for the moment,” he said. “The fifth planet has two moons – I’ll try to get us there and see if we can lose the heavy cruiser.”
He changed the Crimson’s course abruptly, pulling the nose up until it pointed directly away from Astorn. The enemy warship took a few seconds to realise what had happened and then it, too, changed course to follow. It was faster than the Crimson and closed the gap between them until it settled at forty thousand kilometres away.
“The core is at thirty percent of its usual output,” said Breeze. “We should have countermeasures and targeting back to more or less full effectiveness.”
“They’ve stopped launching missiles,” said McGlashan. She looked worried rather than relieved. “Why on earth would they stop? They clearly have a pretty good idea of where we are.”
“Don’t knock it, Commander,” said Duggan. “It’s a long way to the fifth planet.”
“Here we go,” she said. “Another launch. A single missile this time.”
“Just the one?” asked Chainer. “I can handle that.”
Duggan watched the missile on his tactical display. This was something different to the smaller missiles used by the enemy. This one was slower and much, much bigger. “Don’t be too pleased, Lieutenant. Whatever this is, it’s something we’ve not seen before and I’m sure we’re not going to like it.”
He changed their course, taking them further away from the incoming missile’s predicted path. To his horror the missile followed, swinging in a wide arc to pursue them.
“What the hell?” he said. “Can they target us now?”
“I think I know what’s happening,” said McGlashan in sudden realisation. “The missile is only following our approximate course. I think they have someone onboard controlling it manually.”
“They haven’t got a hope of hitting us like that,” said Breeze.
“Unless they don’t need to hit us directly,” said Duggan, not liking this one bit.
He changed course again and once more, the missile clumsily turned to follow them. “Release countermeasures,” he said. “And where are the Bulwarks?”
“The Bulwarks don’t recognize it as a target, sir. Super Warblers on their way,” said McGlashan. “The shock drones won’t help if that missile really is under manual control.”
“I know,” he replied, not taking his eyes from the screen.
The enemy missile flew through the shock drones without any deviation in its course. It flew past the Crimson, several hundred kilometres to starboard and continued onwards.
“What are they doing?” asked Chainer.
Duggan had an idea. He threw the spaceship off to one side, hoping to escape what he suspected was coming. The missile turned as well. Then, when it was still a thousand kilometres away, it exploded.
Chapter Twenty-Six
The detonation was cataclysmic in size. Duggan had no idea what kind of explosive the missile had been carrying, but it expanded at terrifying speed in a roiling storm of pale blue. It enveloped the Crimson and continued outwards, its force not yet spent. The power of the blast was such that it rocked the entire vessel and Duggan felt a juddering through the control bars.
“Hull at one hundred and forty percent of its design maximum temperature,” said Breeze, his voice eerily calm. “Still climbing.”
“We’re going to melt,” said Chainer. “I’ve lost one of the starboard sensor arrays.”
The buffeting stopped and the blue fires withered until they were lost to the endless appetite of the vacuum.
“I calculate the diameter of that blast sphere at approximately five thousand klicks,” said McGlashan in bewilderment. “That was crude as hell. If I had to guess, I’d say it’s a weapon that’s several generations old and likely one that’s not intended to be deployed against spaceships. It could be a weapon they use to flatten ground targets when a Planet Breaker is too much.”
“It made the blast radius of our biggest nukes look tiny in comparison,” Duggan replied with a bitter laugh. “Why wouldn’t the Bulwarks shoot at it?”
“The Bulwarks track the signals of electronic guidance systems, sir. Whatever the enemy fired at us, it can’t have been fitted with an in-built targeting system, so our latest technology couldn’t detect it.”
“That’s a big flaw in the design.”
“They’ve launched a second,” McGlashan said.
“What’s our damage status?” asked Duggan.
“The hull temperature is down to one hundred and ten percent,” said Breeze. “A lot of the heat dispersed through the engines. We’re going to look like an overused candle if we get out of this.”
“We’re not going to make it to the next planet, are we?” said Duggan, as much to himself as the crew.
“I don’t think we can ride many more like the last one,” said Breeze.
“Those missiles travel at eighteen hundred klicks per seconds,” said McGlashan. “If we could decloak for long enough to accelerate to our own maximum speed, we could outrun them.”
“We can’t outrun the warship,” said Breeze. “As soon as we deactivate stealth, they’ll be all over us and it’ll take a couple of minutes before we can reactivate the modules. That’s not a risk I think we should take.”
“We’re going back to Astorn,” said Duggan. “I’m convinced they withheld those high-yield missiles until we were away from their hub. They didn’t want to damage any of the transmitters.”
“Missile number two will be within range in the next few seconds.”
Duggan pulled the control bars hard to the left and the spaceship changed course, heading back on itself. In a split second, the pursuing missile was past them. Whoever was guiding it attempted to change course as well. The weapon wasn’t very manoeuvrable and it needed a much wider arc to come back on course. Its controller decided to simply detonate it.
“The second missile has exploded,” said McGlashan. “We’re at the extremes of its blast sphere.”
Once again, the blue flames washed across the spaceship’s hull, pouring their heat into the already burning alloy
. When they receded, the damage reports came in thick and fast across a multitude of status screens on the bridge.
“That’s burned out a chunk of our gravity drive, and a few hundred tonnes of our rear armour plating has detached.” said Breeze.
Duggan was only half-listening. His tactical display showed they’d caught the enemy warship unawares and they’d successfully doubled back past it. The heavy cruiser executed a rapid turn and resumed the chase.
“It’s good to know you can trick a technologically advanced alien race,” he said.
“They’ve fired a third,” said McGlashan. “It’ll detonate before we reach Astorn.”
“We can’t lose to something as old and slow as a remote control high explosive,” said Duggan. “Commander, take manual control of one of the rear Bulwarks!”
“There’s no chance I can hit something without the targeting systems, sir. It’s slow by the standards of a Lambda, but it’s still moving damned fast.”
“I don’t care. Try.”
Someone brought up a feed from one of the rear sensors and put it on the main screen.
“Lots of stars and darkness,” said Chainer. “We might see something.”
“Here goes nothing,” said McGlashan. There was a tiny, analogue joystick on her console, which was rarely needed in this age of advanced targeting computers. The joystick combined with a small, razor-sharp vector screen to allow manual targeting of the warship’s onboard weapons.
Streaks of white flashed off into space. The Bulwark quickly warmed up to its maximum output and the streaks became a solid line of projectiles. “Five hundred and thirty-two thousand rounds per minute,” said McGlashan. “Come and get us.”
Duggan clenched his teeth tightly together as he watched. The cannon wasn’t designed to operate at maximum burst for longer than a few seconds. It would eventually burn out or explode, depending on how lucky they were.
Something else caught his eye and he swore. “The heavy cruiser has launched one hundred missiles,” he said.
“We’re more visible when we fire, sir,” said Breeze.
“There’s no damn choice,” he replied.
The smaller missiles were much faster than the high-yield one. They overtook the larger weapon and sped by the Crimson, two of them coming within a few hundred metres. Up until now, Duggan had refrained from making extensive use of countermeasures when the stealth modules were active. With McGlashan’s manual control of the Bulwark making them an easier target, it seemed a good time to change tactics.
“There’s another wave of one hundred incoming,” he said. “I’ve set our remaining Bulwarks to automatic. I’m releasing the shock drones.”
He was none-too-soon. The Bulwarks opened up and the shock drones poured out. An inbound missile impacted with one of the drones just as it was leaving its launch tube. The drone was destroyed, but its job was done. The explosion barely warmed the damaged rear armour of the spaceship and then the blast was gone – left a thousand kilometres in their wake.
“Don’t do that again please, sir,” admonished Chainer, his voice pitched slightly higher than usual.
“I’ll try my best, Lieutenant. Super-missile coming past us to the port side.”
“Switching to forward port Bulwark,” said McGlashan.
The switch was just in time – the second aft Bulwark changed to a flashing red icon on Duggan’s screen. It would likely function again, as long as it was given plenty of time to cool down. The enemy cruiser continued to launch wave after wave of missiles and Duggan ejected the shock drones as quickly as they reloaded into their tubes. The drones were not one hundred percent effective, but they had decades of fine-tuning and development behind them. Wave after wave of the enemy missiles detonated fruitlessly in the cloud.
“Countermeasures down to twenty percent of capacity,” muttered Duggan, releasing yet more of the drones. “I don’t want to rely on Bulwarks alone.”
“Switching to front Bulwark number one,” said McGlashan.
“We don’t have long,” said Chainer.
“I know Frank, I’m trying my hardest.”
McGlashan’s best was good enough. The super-missile was close to its likely detonation range when she scored a hit. There was no explosion – one of the Bulwark slugs punched through the silvery metal of the missile’s propulsion section and continued through the reinforced alloy box which housed the control unit. The missile was smashed into a hundred pieces, which separated and spun away.
“Yes!” shouted McGlashan.
“Nice shooting,” said Breeze, wiping his forehead with a sleeve.
The Crimson was now only forty thousand kilometres above the planet Astorn. Duggan kept them pointing straight down, finally levelling them out at an altitude of five thousand kilometres. The enemy cruiser stayed behind, but fired no more missiles.
Chainer put his head in his hands for a moment. “Commander, I’d buy you a drink if it didn’t come out of the replicator free of charge.”
“You’re not allowed to drink on duty,” said Duggan, feeling a rush of good humour.
“How about I get you a coffee instead?”
“I think I’ll pass, Lieutenant,” McGlashan replied, slumping back, her hand still on the control joystick as if it had become glued in place.
The elation Duggan felt a moment before faded as quickly as it had arrived. They were effectively trapped here on Astorn, with the heavy cruiser keeping pace. The tactic of flying to another planet in the solar system had failed and there was no way he wanted to try deactivating the stealth modules in order to attempt a lightspeed getaway. On top of everything, their time was certainly limited – the enemy would surely have many ships heading this way. Cloaked or not, the Crimson would eventually be rooted out and destroyed.
“Commander McGlashan’s done her bit, sir. Now it’s your turn.” The words came from Breeze and were intended as motivation, so Duggan took no offence.
“Is the Planet Breaker available?”
“No, sir. It takes almost everything from the AI to fire and we’re not quite there yet. The core is clearly damaged – I expected to see full functionality restored by now.”
“Never mind, Lieutenant - I have a plan. What’s our hull temperature reading?”
“We’ve cooled down significantly, sir. The gauge is showing forty percent on the exterior. We’re still hotter than we should be inside.”
“It’s going to have to be enough,” Duggan replied. “They’re faster than us, bigger than us and better-armed. The one thing the Dreamers seem to neglect on their warships is the armour. Let us see how they hold up to a few low-level, high speed circuits of Astorn.”
He took the Crimson lower, until it was practically skimming the surface at an altitude of two hundred kilometres. As he’d hoped, the enemy followed suit, closing the distance between the two vessels to five hundred kilometres and remaining a little higher in the sky.
“Want me to nuke the transmitters as we go by?” asked McGlashan.
“Please hold, Commander. Nothing would give me greater pleasure than destroying this whole lot, but I’m aware the heavy cruiser is holding fire. If we start bombarding the surface, we can be sure they’ll start up again.”
“I’ll hold until ordered otherwise,” she said.
Duggan increased the Crimson’s speed, gradually at first, then at an increasing rate. The gravity drive had suffered damage in the missile blast and was also heavily burdened by the stealth modules. It didn’t matter – this close to the planet, they could achieve more than enough speed to reduce the spaceship to molten alloy.
“What if they decide to sit off-planet and wait it out, sir?” asked Breeze.
“As soon as we lose sight of them, we’re going to lightspeed, Lieutenant. Plus, I’m relying on the enemy captain being a sucker and following us to his own destruction.”
“Unless we burn up first,” said Chainer, unable to keep his mouth shut.
“That’s the chance we’re taking,�
�� Duggan replied, selecting a course that would avoid the main base on Astorn. The last thing he wanted was to be shot down by dozens of surface-to-air missile batteries.
The chase was on. The atoms of the planet’s thin atmosphere collided with the Crimson’s hull at an increasing speed and the heat built up. The heavy cruiser remained behind, giving no sign it was willing to let the smaller warship escape.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
The hull temperature was soon at one hundred percent of its recommended maximum, producing a series of warnings on the bridge screens. Duggan ignored the alerts and turned the Crimson’s speed up another notch. The smaller installations on the surface flashed by underneath.
“One hundred and ten percent,” said Breeze.
“Can you get a reading from their hull?” asked Duggan.
“Negative. I can tell you their approximate power consumption, but other than that, no.”
“Our sensors can read heat,” said Chainer. “I can give you a reasonably accurate estimation of their external temperature. The trouble is, the data will be next to worthless without knowledge of their heat dissipation technology, thickness of their hull, exact composition of their armour and so on.”
“I get the idea, Lieutenant,” said Duggan. “We’re going to need to keep our fingers crossed on this one.”
“Hull at one hundred and twenty percent,” said Breeze.
“The enemy cruiser is maintaining a static distance,” said Chainer.
Duggan fed more power to the gravity drives. He was aware that a warship could easily exceed its design tolerances for a short period – he’d done it on many occasions. It was the sustained heat he wasn’t so sure about.
“One hundred and twenty-five percent.”
Terminus Gate (Survival Wars Book 5) Page 18
