10
“They’re definitely coming down,” Simmons said calmly. “Data is hours old but the thermal blooms from their engines are easy to track with the passives. Three of the picket ships are moving on us and two more ships that we hadn’t detected appear to be moving to cover our jump points.”
“There wasn’t enough time for our transmission to the surface to be intercepted all the way out there and for us to detect their reaction,” Jackson mused, looking at the mission clock on the main display that began counting the instant the Star transitioned in. “They detected us right away. Tactical, you are clear to go to active sensors … no point trying to hide anymore.”
“Aye, sir,” Simmons said. “Active sensors coming online now.”
The Aludra Star was ten hours from having to commit to decelerating hard to hit their optimum orbital insertion or veering off and maintaining their velocity to escape into the outer system and try their approach again. Jackson was unsurprised that more enemy contacts popped up once their presence was known; there was no way in hell they were holding this system against three separate counterattacks with four cruisers. Now he would get to see just how much they wanted to keep control of the planet’s surface, or at least keep it intact. The Marines and civilians down there were hanging by a thread and he feared that if the Darshik felt they were losing their grip on the system they would just glass the surface from orbit and retreat.
It was why he’d pushed CENTCOM to try and take back the Juwel System with overwhelming force and not a handful of half-measures before giving up. He didn’t have any real experience with this new enemy but he felt certain that if they forced them to withdraw they would make sure there was nothing left in the system on their way out. They needed to be quickly and decisively eliminated. For all he knew he was deploying his drop shuttles just to have all the Marines and spacers aboard get vaporized in an orbital bombardment because Fleet hadn't cleared the system first.
All of that was irrelevant now, though. When he broadcasted the coded hail and immediately received a proper reply from CENTCOM forces on the surface there was no chance of the Star simply flying through the system at speed and escaping out the other side. Admiral Pitt had intimated to him that there would be no hard inquiry if the Star came back and reported that the system was lost. He’d said it was something CENTCOM and Federation oversight were almost expecting anyway.
The conversation had made Jackson physically ill, especially coming from a flag officer that he admired so much. Oh, he understood the math and could appreciate its cold, dispassionate logic: The Federation was weak and Starfleet was decimated. Throwing all their resources into freeing a single Frontier planet made little sense when taking into account how much at risk it put the core worlds.
Jackson knew it was why he’d never be an admiral: He couldn’t accept that they should just leave the citizens of Juwel to their fate because the fight might be difficult. In a way he felt that perhaps it was the fact that the Darshik were so beatable that made CENTCOM want to pull back and protect key infrastructure. With the Phage there had been a sense of hopelessness in the face of being so overmatched and from that hopelessness came complete freedom to fight with everything they had. There had been nothing to lose. Nothing to protect. Just a desperate flailing about until they’d gotten lucky and landed a haymaker that killed the Phage just before it could really move to exterminate humanity for good.
“New contact! Darshik cruiser clearing the terminator of Juwel; it was hiding on the sunward side as you said it would be, Captain,” Simmons called out.
“Is it coming out to meet us or has it shifted orbit to put us in line of sight?” Jackson asked.
“It looks like it’s under full acceleration, sir.”
“So they’ll swing around the planet at least one more time to get to escape velocity,” Jackson nodded. “Our best intel on their cruisers indicates they don’t have the power to just come straight out of a low parking orbit. Keep tracking them for now … they’re too far away to worry about and I’d rather not engage them so close to the planet.”
“Do you think that’s the only bogey in orbit over Juwel, sir?” Ensign Dole asked.
“Given the predictive models we have from Captain Wright’s multiple encounters I would have to assume there are two more that we don’t see right now,” Jackson said calmly. “This one peeked around to see if it could get a reaction out of us it liked. We’ll hold course and speed and make it come out to meet us.”
“Aye, sir,” Dole said.
The Darshik cruiser ended up making three full orbits of Juwel, accelerating and gaining altitude on each pass, before it broke away and came out to meet them head on. The range on the threat board showed it still over six hundred thousand kilometers away, so Jackson took a moment to steady himself and think about the engagement. It was his first combat action since he’d retired after the Phage War and took a job as a paper pusher for a research project and he didn’t want to make a rookie mistake because he missed something obvious.
“Tactical,” he said finally. “Set point defense to auto. We know they have missiles but so far they’ve showed us nothing our laser batteries can’t knock down. Bracket the incoming cruiser and plot a targeting solution, one Shrike.”
“Sir, we still have—”
“I’m saving those, Commander,” Jackson cut him off. “They’re too far out now anyway. They won’t be able to close the gap before the cruiser is past them and I don’t want a missile coming back at us chasing it.”
“Aye, sir,” Simmons said. “Firing solution locked in, tube one is ready to fire.”
“Hold your fire,” Jackson said. “Keep updating the weapon, but let’s let it fully commit to this charge.”
Simmons said nothing but pulled his hand back from the fire control panel. The enemy cruiser was well within the Shrike’s effective range, but the ships were closing at near-relativistic speeds and accelerating. The missile would increase this closure speed even more and then be unable to make even minor course corrections if the Darshik ship executed an avoidance maneuver at the last minute. Even if the Star was equipped with a kinetic weapon like a mag-cannon Jackson couldn’t risk firing while a populated planet was directly behind their target.
“We’re getting returns from our active sensors on known targets within the system,” Dole spoke up. “Data is agreeing with our passive data so far and the tactical computer is updating predicted tracks.”
“Thank you, Ensign,” Simmons said as the younger officer stepped in to pick up the slack for the busy tactical officer. Jackson said nothing but thought that maybe there was some hope for Dole after all. The tension on the bridge was palpable as the Star bore down on the planet and the closing Darshik warship. The crew was young, untested, and knew that their assault carrier was not built to go head-to-head with the enemy heavy. The only thing that seemed to give them comfort was the one thing Jackson was least confident about: him. He heard the whispers in the corridors about how they’d lucked out with the legendary starship captain taking the bridge before their first combat mission. Jackson remembered much the same attitude from the crew of his last ship, the Ares … many of them didn’t make it back from her last mission.
“Darshik ship is continuing to accelerate, sir,” Simmons said. “Thermal analysis indicates they’re still running under full power.”
“That makes no sense if they intend to hit us with that plasma lance,” Jackson muttered. “What’s our range?”
“We’ve broken three hundred thousand kilometers, Captain,” Dole said.
Jackson thought furiously for a moment, trying to put himself in the shoes of the Darshik commander. What would he do if he had a numerical and tactical advantage? He sure as hell wouldn’t rush headlong into—
“Helm! Emergency stop!” Jackson barked. “Don’t be gentle, slow this ship down! Coms, sound the warning for hard maneuvering.”
Almost simultaneously a klaxon began blaring in quick blasts and
the engine pitch died out momentarily and then increased to a dull roar that shook the deck plates. His crew cried out in surprise but grabbed onto handholds and kept at their stations. The Star’s internal gravity system once again couldn’t keep up with the inertia created by the engine thrust and they had to hang on while the ship’s relative velocity was shed off.
“Tactical, fire tube one! Target that ship!” Jackson grunted. “Just get that missile away! Helm, reduce engine power by half but keep slowing.” There were some grunted replies to his commands and he saw on the tactical threat board the target ahead bracketed by a flashing red box right before tube one spit its Shrike out.
“Missile away,” Simmons said as the g forces let off.
“Send an update and have it veer off to port; update its intercept angle well past what it will think is optimum,” Jackson said. “That ship is going to break away hard. It never was going to try and close on us.”
“How do you—”
“Send an update to the other Shrikes we released earlier,” Jackson cut Simmons off. “Burn their first stage to put them within line of sight of the sunward side of Juwel. They’re clear to prioritize and engage any targets they find. I’m sending you the override codes to transmit to the weapons. They’ll have a safety lock to prevent them being fired at targets not classified by the ship’s tactical computer.”
“Captain … isn’t there a good reason for the safety interlocks to—”
“Commander, the only ships in this system are the Star and the enemy.” Jackson waved him off with his right hand as he accessed his secure server with his left.
“Yes, sir.” Simmons fell quiet and waited for Jackson to forward him the missile override codes while keeping an eye on the threat board.
“Incoming target is bearing hard to port, sir,” Dole said. “It’s still at full burn … it’s going to be close if our Shrike can catch it.”
“Let’s hope so,” Jackson said. “I’d hate to be one missile short at the end of this battle. Tactical?”
“Missile targeting package updated … confirmation from both weapons received,” Simmons said. “They’re away.”
“OPS, how far off course did we manage to get from our original orbital insertion?” Jackson asked.
“Minimal deviation, sir,” Dole said. “Sending update to the helm now to put us back on target for our optimum launch altitude and speed.”
“Helm, execute your new course when you get it.”
“Coming onto corrected course, aye,” the helmsman reported. “Ceasing braking thrust. Engines to ahead three-quarters.” The dull throb of the engines changed slightly and the hull groaned as the thrust reversed directions and the Star began accelerating again along her new course. It was another three hours before anything happened, but when it did it happened all at once.
“Missile pursuing Tango One has detonated; waiting for battle damage assessment from CIC,” Dole reported just as an alarm went off at the tactical station.
“Our first two missiles are each tracking a target and burning their second stages,” Simmons said, his red-rimmed eyes wide. “Telemetry tracking shows their targets are in a stationary orbit; they won’t be evading these two.”
“They can still shoot them down,” Jackson said. “Do we know there were only two more ships hiding on the other side of the planet?”
“No, sir,” Simmons shook his head. “The Shrikes only return data on the target they’re locked onto.”
“You have to dig into the raw telemetry feed,” Lieutenant Epsen said from behind Jackson at the com station. “They talk to each other to prioritize targets when they’re fired in autonomous mode so they don’t chase the same one. There might be something there to indicate if there was more than two.”
“How the hell do you know that, Lieutenant?” Simmons asked, his voice carrying only the thinnest trace off annoyance.
“I was a munitions officer before cross-training to be bridge crew,” Epsen said. “I’m rusty, but I could take a crack at it if you give me access to the buffer in the tactical computer where the telemetry feeds are stored.”
“How long will that take?” Jackson asked, eyeing the mission clock. Juwel was beginning to take shape on the display and they would quickly be past the point of no return for an abort.
“Half an hour if it’s there, sir,” Epsen said.
Jackson looked at Simmons and shrugged. “Give him the pointer to the telemetry buffers,” he said. “We’re not likely to need a com officer until we need to talk to the surface prior to launch.”
“Worth a shot, sir,” Simmons agreed. Jackson made a note in the ship’s log to make a suggestion to Fleet Research and Development regarding the Shrikes and Hornets. The missiles had advanced sensor and com capabilities; there was no reason they couldn’t be more flexible in what they sent back when fired at long ranges. The log was constantly updated on a com drone that would be fired off to Terran space if it looked like the Star would be lost.
Jackson fervently hoped that he would be able to carry the suggestion to the engineers himself.
11
“We have the initial report from intel section on the enemy ship, Captain,” Commander Barrett said quietly from the open hatchway of Celesta’s office.
“Come in and sit down, Commander,” she said, passing a weary hand over her face. “Close the hatch.” Barrett closed the hatch and walked over to the chair in front of his captain’s desk and sat, his back ramrod straight and his hands clenched.
“I’ve gone over the data on the exception report with the analysts in CIC.”
“Yes, ma’am.” Barrett almost flinched.
“You need to put this out of your head, Michael,” Celesta said, using his given name for only the second time since they’d known each other. “I don’t see that I would have done anything different with the information you had at your disposal.”
“If I had been more inquisitive … or had even just put an entry in the turnover log for you to look at it ... I don’t know—” Barrett trailed off.
“I would have ignored it the same as you,” Celesta insisted. “I need you at your best, Commander. We’re flying into the complete unknown right now and I can’t have this cloud hanging over my XO’s head. Yes … an unexpected event happened and our mission ended up being a bust, but the Icarus suffered minimal damage and we lost no crew. More importantly, we know what to look for now the next time we run into that ship.”
“You think this won’t be an isolated incident?” Barrett frowned. “That maybe we stumbled into someone’s patrol area?”
“Oh no, there’s something quite unique about that ship.” Celesta shook her head. “I give it even odds that we’re racing it back to Terran space right now.”
“That’s disquieting,” Barrett said. “We’ve forwarded all the raw data on the encounter to CENTCOM via the point-to-point drone, but CIC and our own intel folks have done a lot since then. Should we drop out of warp and send another com done?”
“No,” Celesta said firmly. “And for two reasons: I want a second, unbiased analysis of the data and I also don’t want to risk dropping out of warp in interstellar space. Our best astronomical mapping data gives us a clear shot to our target system, but we’re still taking a mighty risk with this flight.”
“The warp drive likes to avoid obstacles by its very nature and swings around anything with too much mass to be deflected,” Barrett insisted. “I don’t think we’ll pop out and slam into a planetoid—”
“My fears are a bit more exotic,” Celesta interrupted him. “The eggheads in Fleet Research and Science are good, but a lot of what they know about space this far out is gleaned from remote observation and best guess. I’d rather not find out the hard way that there’s a localized gravitational distortion that nullifies our ability to transition back to warp.
“There’s precedence for that … we’ve lost more than a couple automated probes that way. The point is that the risk far outweighs the reward since we�
��ll not get any reply back from New Sierra anyway. We press on.”
“Aye aye, ma’am,” Barrett said.
Celesta looked him in the eye for a long moment. “That will be all, Commander,” she said just as the silence began to become uncomfortable. “Take heed of what I said. My trust in you and your ability to do your job isn’t shaken from the incident, so I hope your confidence in yourself isn’t either. I expect the Icarus to be at one hundred percent by the time we get to our destination.”
“She will be, Captain,” Barrett said crisply.
“Dismissed,” Celesta said, turning to her terminal. “Please leave the hatch open on your way out.”
After her XO walked stiffly out the hatchway she placed her hand on the monitor so the terminal could take a biometric reading and allow her access to the server the intel report was on. She didn’t think she’d find any additional insights than what she got from CIC, but she was nothing if not thorough and it wasn’t as if there was anything more pressing to do as the Icarus hummed along in warp.
Her intel crew had cleaned up some of the imagery captured by the optical sensors as the ship flew past, and Celesta could tell that it had little in common with the standard Darshik cruisers she’d been going up against. In fact, it was the first time that she’d seen any sort of major deviation in starship design from the species. While humans constantly changed their designs based on available technology or shift in mission, it seemed the Darshik had designed their heavy cruisers and stuck with them. It suggested to her that they hadn’t developed much of their technology themselves and merely learned to copy it.
This new ship, however, was something different. It was actually a bit smaller than the standard cruiser and seemed … skeletal. The hull wasn’t uniform and in spots she could see spars and support struts, but it looked like it was intentional and not from any battle damage. The color-corrected image also showed an embellishment on the narrow, pointed prow that was interesting: two hash marks that looked like someone had dipped two of their fingers in yellow paint and left the marks that went down and forward.
Iron & Blood: Book Two of The Expansion Wars Trilogy Page 10
