Against All Odds

by DePrima, Thomas

  "Our operatives on Stewart have told us that sixty-two of Milor's newest and fastest ships, the ones Carver rebuilt after she defeated them, have been transferred to her command."

  "It would take annuals for those ships to reach the areas where our battle groups were last reported."

  "Carver also received the three new battleships launched last year."

  "It'll be annuals before they even reach Stewart. No, it must be something else. I wonder if the Uthlaro are up to something by destroying our ships under the guise of enemy action?"

  "They wouldn't intentionally weaken our combat effectiveness before Space Command is driven out. Would they?"

  "No, you're probably right; it has to be Carver. Perhaps First Warlord Kalisnacos was right when he warned us about her."

  "But our last reports have her on Earth. We received news broadcasts she was touring their military academies about the same time we crossed the border. She can't be involved. She's annuals away from Region Two."

  "What else can possibly be responsible for eight missing battle groups?"

  "We're at a loss to explain it, sir."

  "Was Carver directly involved in the attack on the Milori home world?"

  "According to all reports, she commanded one of the ships."

  "How did she get back to Earth so quickly?"

  "Uh, unknown, sir."

  "There's more here than meets the eye."

  "How should we proceed?"

  "Have every other battle group meet up with the group on their starboard quarter so the strength of each group is doubled. And order them to report any sightings of ships, Space Command or otherwise, as soon as they're detected."

  "But we won't be able to cover as much territory if the groups combine."

  "How much will we cover if we continue to lose ships? Eight groups represent more than a third of our invasion fleet. Have the newly combined groups cover the most important targets each of the two smaller groups would have visited."

  "Yes sir."

  * * *

  Chapter Nine

  ~ November 14th, 2282 ~

  "This group is substantially larger than any we've encountered previously, Admiral," Commander Diana Durland, Captain of the Danube, said, "and it's a considerable distance from where we expected to find a battle group. The strength of the signal from the DeTect scans leaves no doubt it's either a battle group or a convoy. The twenty-five ships are about the size of warships. Should we move in using attack plan Delta-Three and then abort if it's a convoy?"

  "No, hold up, Captain," Jenetta said from the Themis conference room she had taken over for an office. "It looks like the Tsgardi have either adjusted to our attacks or combined forces for some other purpose. What targets lie along their current path?"

  Commander Durland posed the question to her tactical officer, then turned back to the screen. "Nothing special for a hundred-six light years, then they'll encounter the Louswalma system, Admiral. According to the files, the fourth planet has been an important agricultural producer for the Milori."

  "That's about six months distance for a Tsgardi warship," Jenetta said, thinking out loud. "They wouldn't combine groups this far out in preparation for an attack on that system. If this is a battle group, the size has to be related to not being able to contact the battle groups we've destroyed. Well, we were expecting it to happen at some point. Captain, stand by. When I give the word to engage, activate your IDS jamming but wait a full fifteen minutes before moving in so we all arrive about the same time. One ship would be very overmatched by a group this size."

  "Aye, Admiral."

  Tapping a button on her com console, she said, "Com, establish a vid-link conference with all captains."

  In less than ten seconds, the image of every ship's captain was visible on the large monitor on the wall in Jenetta's office.

  "The Danube has detected the presence of some twenty-five vessels believed to be Tsgardi warships. It appears they've combined two smaller battle groups into one larger force, probably because so many of their battle groups aren't responding to hails. We're going to jam the IDS bands and then move in. The scout-destroyers will use attack plan Delta-Three and the battleships will use attack plan Echo-One. It's unlikely we can guarantee containment of all ships once they see our strength, so the scout-destroyers will pursue any that try to escape, targeting their temporal field generators to prevent them from escaping in FTL, while jamming any IDS broadcasts. We're not trying to take prisoners here, so just blast them to space dust as soon as you have a shot. They have us outnumbered three to one, so be careful and good luck. Prepare to engage. Everyone ready?" Jenetta saw every captain nod. "Engage."

  The ships had stopped in space but not cancelled their double envelopes. The Themis surged ahead as the helmsman activated the Light-9375 setting. Jenetta stood up and walked with Lt. Commander Ashraf to the ship's bridge. The location, course, and speed of the Tsgardi task force had been keyed into the computer and transmitted to every ship during Jenetta's conference call. Disappearing from their former locations in a blur of light, the SC ships appeared just a million kilometers in front of the advancing Tsgardi ships fourteen minutes and twenty-six seconds later.

  As the small SC fleet was recorded on the forward scanning systems, the Tsgardi collision avoidance systems immediately halted their advance. They hadn't paid attention to the signal generated when the Danube passed them because of its Light-9375 speed and because it was on the outer fringe of their DeTect range. Gone in a fraction of a second, the Tsgardi tactical officers had all assumed it was an anomaly, but they couldn't mistake the sudden appearance of six SC ships directly in front of them.

  The Tsgardi were still trying to contact one another to coordinate their action when the three scout-destroyers from the main force passed though their outer perimeter of ships and began circling inside, laser arrays blazing. The SC battleships moved to circle outside the Tsgardi battle group in a counter clockwise pattern, their laser arrays blazing as well. Torpedoes from both scout-destroyers and battleships began to decimate the Tsgardi ships while the Tsgardi gunners were still running for their battle stations.

  When the Danube arrived seconds later, it joined the fray inside the Tsgardi group of ships. Already, a number of Tsgardi vessels had stopped firing, but the larger size of the force meant the battle would rage on longer than previous battles and the Tsgardi ships were able to fire hundreds of torpedoes at the circling SC ships.

  It seemed inconceivable, but no Tsgardi ship broke for open space. They stayed in their formation position and continued firing until they couldn't fire any more. No Tsgardi torpedo struck an SC ship, but a couple came close before the ship's Phalanx system destroyed them. Eighteen minutes after the Danube flashed through the Tsgardi outer perimeter, the battle was over and the Tsgardi ships were silent. None would ever again slice through space at greater than light speeds unless they were being towed.

  * * *

  "Still feel it's a turkey shoot, Captain?" Jenetta asked Captain Neil Elder of the Boreas during a seven-ship conference linkup of the commanding officers following the cleanup efforts.

  "Not so much, ma'am. A couple of their torpedoes got just a little too close for comfort. I'm glad they only had a three-to-one superiority in numbers."

  "I told the Admiralty Board I would feel good about our chances up to five to one, but that I wouldn't like to fight against greater odds. Too much can go wrong when multiple ships are all firing their weapons at you."

  "Should we alter our tactics if we come across another group as large as this one, Admiral?" Commander Durland asked.

  "Do you have a revised plan to offer?"

  "I've read the reports on the tactics you employed against the Milori. The use of WOLaR torpedoes here might enable us to reduce the size of the battle groups before we fully commit to the attack. We could position ourselves in front of their path and fire the torpedoes before we appear on their sensors. They'll actually run into our weapons. The steal
th coating on the torpedoes, coupled with their small size, will probably keep them from being identified by their DeTect system. Our weapons specialists can remotely guide the torpedoes to a point in the center of the Tsgardi formation and detonate them."

  "That's an interesting proposal, Commander, but when we used the WOLaR against the Milori, we had them in very tight clusters. The Tsgardi are moving in a 'V' formation, but they're spread out quite a bit. The WOLaR torpedoes would be considerably less ineffective."

  "Yes, Admiral, but the hull integrity of the Tsgardi ships isn't nearly as great as that of the Milori ships since the Tsgardi use titanium instead of tritanium. It doesn't require nearly as much force to puncture them."

  "That's true. Of course, there's the matter of Light-225 speed to consider also. Unless timed to the nanosecond, the WOLaR weapons will be useless. We'll have to slow the Tsgardi to sub-light, or stop them."

  "We do have electronic debris field generators on board that will fool their collision avoidance systems into shutting down their light speed engines," Captain Lynda Stager suggested.

  "Yes," Commander Durland said. "If we can accurately determine their course and speed, we can set up an ambush the way the Raiders used to stop commercial vessels. We can then guide the torpedoes towards where we expect them to stop. Once they've stopped, the torpedoes will be bearing down on their location.

  "How does everyone else feel about this idea?" Jenetta asked.

  "It has some merit," Captain Sandor Erikson of the battleship Themis said, "but we won't really be able to judge its effectiveness until we try it because we don't know what the reaction of the Tsgardi will be when they encounter the debris field. They might change their formation to search for the problem. And rather than simply detonating our torpedoes in the center of their formation where most of the force would be wasted, I would fire WOLaR weapons at specific points along their 'V' formation, hoping to take out all the ships in that zone. Even if the damage in minimal, the confusion it'll cause should help us tremendously."

  "That's our plan then," Jenetta said. "If it's successful, we'll use it until we find something better or the Tsgardi change their tactics again. If that's all, we have lots of work to do and limited time. Let's prepare to get underway to the next area where we'll conduct a search for a Tsgardi battle group. Good hunting, Hudson."

  "Thank you, Admiral," Commander Scott Hyland, Captain of the Hudson, said.

  * * *

  "Sir, I have bad news," Premier Warlord Qerdesqa's aide said to him, "we're unable to make contact with three of the combined battle groups."

  The baboon-like creature turned to stare at the younger officer. "Which groups?"

  "The groups combined from battle squadrons eleven through sixteen, sir."

  "And we haven't received anything since their last weekly reports? No reported sightings of ships or suspicious phenomena?"

  "Nothing, sir. When their reports became overdue, the First Director of War Room Communications attempted to contact them personally to learn the reason for the delay, but there has been no response to his communication. All groups were permitted adequate time for response and we should have heard hours ago."

  "What of the groups made from seventeen through twenty-two and the first two groups?"

  "All four groups report everything is normal. They haven't spotted any other ships and are proceeding according to their orders."

  "This doesn't make sense!" Premier Warlord Qerdesqa suddenly shouted. "Why aren't they reporting in? What has happened to them? If they encountered enemy ships, why didn't they report?"

  Qerdesqa's aide just stood looking at the floor somberly.

  "Notify the War Council Secretary that he must call a meeting immediately to discuss this."

  * * *

  The task force welcomed the return of the repaired Colorado, which increased the force to eight ships again. The engineers had worked around the clock at Quesann to get the engine replaced as quickly as possible. An entire hold aboard ship housed another spare maneuvering engine in case it was needed, with the other holds filled to overflowing with replacement torpedoes. Tethered beneath the small ship was a spare Sub-Light engine half as large as the ship itself. Jenetta had decided the task force should have a Prometheus-class battleship-maneuvering engine on hand also. Sheathed in Dakinium, it presented no problem when the small ship engaged its Light-9375 speed to catch up with the task force. A massive hold aboard the Boreas had been prepared for its regular storage.

  "If the attack plans are correct," Admiral Kanes said from his office aboard the Themis, "we have eight small groups, or four larger groups left out there. We've destroyed one-hundred eighty-nine Tsgardi warships and have three-hundred twenty-one prisoners aboard the Themis."

  "That's not very many prisoners," Jenetta said from her briefing room aboard the Colorado. "Those hundred eighty-nine ships must have been crewed by close to a hundred-thousand warriors."

  "We've recorded ninety-four-thousand eight-hundred dead. Based on the crew complement files we've been able to upload, we estimate that as many as five hundred more may have been lost through holes in the hulls following torpedo strikes, or simply disintegrated from the force of the blasts."

  "It's too bad we couldn't have notified the Tsgardi after we destroyed their first battle group and convinced them to recall their ships and end this invasion."

  "They wouldn't have done it, Jen. You practically have to beat a Tsgardi over the head with a hammer just to get his attention."

  "We've certainly done that during the past few weeks. The loss of their ships has to be like a blow from a sledgehammer, so I'm sure we have their attention. I can't imagine why they haven't recalled their ships."

  "Tsgardi may be fierce fighters, but they've never been known for their intelligence. Remember the incident Vyx reported where he was holding his laser pistol on two Tsgardis and they reached for their lattice pistols anyway?"

  "Yes, I do. When we started this I said we'd have to drive them back or wipe them completely out. Since we're not driving them back, our only alternative is to wipe them out."

  The image of Admiral Kanes was suddenly replaced with that of the Colorado's com chief, who said, "I'm sorry to cut in on your conversation, Admiral, but the Amazon is signaling they've found the next Tsgardi battle group."

  "Thank you, chief. I'll be right out."

  "Aye, Admiral."

  As the image of Admiral Kanes reappeared, Jenetta said, "Sorry Keith, the Amazon has located our next battle group. It's time to go back to work."

  "Aye, Admiral. Kanes out."

  "Carver out."

  * * *

  "Admiral, you have a message from the GSC Mississippi," the com operator said to Jenetta through her CT as she showered after her morning work out.

  Tapping her Space Command ring she said, "Thank you, chief. Is it a priority message?"

  "Negative, ma'am."

  "Okay, I'll view it when I arrive on the bridge. Carver out."

  After a quick breakfast, Jenetta walked to the bridge with her two pets and proceeded directly to her briefing room after greeting the watch team, learning the status of the ship, and relieving Lt. Commander Ashraf. She made herself a mug of coffee while her cats settled into their usual places, and then walked to her desk and sat down. Lifting the com panel, she highlighted the Mississippi message line in the queue and pressed the play button. As she sat back and sipped at her coffee, the image of a young officer appeared. The message line identified him as Commander John Cleviss.

  "Hello Admiral," the image said. "I've been functioning as group leader for the Mississippi, Seine, Nile, Thames, and Tigris on our trip to Region Two. We'll pass out of Region One in two days. Our current destination is Quesann, but before we left Mars we were briefed on the situation in Region Two, so we're ready to change course to join you if that is your wish. We're all thrilled at becoming part of your command and await your orders.

  "Commander John Cleviss, Captain of the Missi
ssippi. Message complete."

  Jenetta leaned forward and tapped the record key on the com unit. "Message to Commander John Cleviss, Captain of the Mississippi.

  "Welcome to Region Two, Captain. My task force is currently located deep in our territory, searching for the last of the Tsgardi groups in this part of space. There are still two groups remaining on our side of the border between Coleman and Region One and we suspect they might have consolidated into one group. If they have, the group will most likely consist of between twenty-five and twenty-seven Tsgardi warships. My tactical officer will append the coordinates where we'd expect to find them, along with the routes and timetable they were supposed to follow originally. Your job is to hunt them down and trail them until we can join you. Separate and crisscross the area at Light-9375 until you locate them, then pull back after you determine their course. Under no circumstances are you to engage them, nor even alert them to your presence.

  "Jenetta Carver, Admiral, Commander of the Second Fleet and Military Governor of Region Two, aboard the Colorado. Message complete."

  * * *

  "What is this?" Commander Stephan Cross said to the vid screen in his briefing room aboard the Nile. His image was just one of the five appearing on the large wall monitor showing all officers involved in the conference call. "We bust our backsides to get here and now we're just supposed to sit and wait until the great Jenetta Carver comes here to show us how to fight Tsgardi?"

  "At ease, Commander," Commander Cleviss said from his briefing room aboard the Mississippi. "You're bordering on insubordination. Our orders are to find the Tsgardi warships, then wait until the task force arrives before we even alert them to our presence. The Admiral said that if the two groups have merged, the consolidated group will be composed of up to twenty-seven warships. Do you really want to take on twenty-seven warships with five small scout-destroyers for your first time in real battle?"

  "We've all had simulator time for these ships, John. They're impervious to laser fire and the Phalanx system will take care of the torpedoes. We're practically indestructible. If we have to wait for the Admiral to arrive every time before we engage the enemy, this war will last forever."