"Half the electric primary ring main just lost power, skipper." Hockley reported. "Lazarus systems are rerouting power from secondary life-support, to tactical systems. Number Three engine is off line and venting coolant."
"Helm, compensate with the remaining engines." Crowe ordered.
"Confirmed, sir, ten minutes from the rings."
"Captain, the enemy contacts are accelerating, range to contacts decreasing."
On the holo the enemy ships started to edge forward, also visible was a trail of engine coolant.
"I think we just put blood in the water, Captain!" Hockley called out between shouted instructions to his damage control parties. Crowe didn’t have time to reply as another wave of missiles closed, twisting and turning trying to find a way into their currently defenceless upper rear arc. In turn Deimos kept rolling and weaving, doing everything possible to make the approach vector difficult. The bursts from the flak guns were getting shorter and shorter, as the gunnery officer tried to conserve his ammunition.
Several more missiles burst close enough to rattle the hull. Each time the lights wavered and Hockley reported loss of power somewhere in the ship, but each time the electrics failed to make good their threat to collapse completely.
Another five desperate minutes inched past; two more guns briefly fell silent, then restarted. But now the rings were starting to offer protection. The mass of asteroids beyond Deimos was clearly starting to confuse many of the missiles terminal guidance radars. Crowe watched with relief as, increasingly, missiles ignored Deimos and instead passed them out to home in on an asteroid.
"Captain, what do you want me to do?" The helmsman called over her shoulder.
"Take us into the middle of the rings; use as much cover as you can." Crowe ordered.
"Yes skipper."
On the holo, behind the Nameless warships, another three blips appeared. To Crowe it looked to be in the same position as the first seven, which ruled out friendlies.
"Captain-"
"I see them, tactical what do you estimate?" Crowe asked.
"Our probe isn’t getting an IFF return, sir. Getting data from the drone’s passive sensors… Captain, additional contacts are hostiles. I make it two escorts and what looks like a support ship."
"Are you sure of that, tactical?" Crowe demanded.
"Of the escorts yes, not so sure on the support ship, sir."
"Important?" Hockley asked.
"Maybe." Crowe replied, without taking his eyes off the holo.
"Captain, we’re now entering the rings."
"Understood helm, carry on as instructed. Tactical, shut down active sensors and weapons as soon as we enter the rings."
Crowe leaned back in his chair and let out a sigh of relief as Deimos slid into the protective embrace of the asteroids.
"Commander, I’m going to need a full damage and status report, then…" Crowe trailed off as he studied his bridge.
"Then, sir?" Hockley prompted.
"Then Commander, we’re going to have to figure out, how the hell we’re going to get out of here."
"I got another burn out here Bosun." Called out an engineering rating.
Benson nodded and turned back to Hockley.
"Every time we took a jolt, we got a power surge. Result, I’ve got burnt out circuit boards all over the place, Commander." Benson reported. "The Lazarus systems have so far managed to keep up, but they’re running out of ways to reroute signals."
"I just spoke to the Gunnery Officer," Hockley replied, "he told me that he’s noticing a lag from the dorsal radar hook up."
"I’m not surprised, sir." Benson said with a sigh. "The signal from that radar array, is currently being routed via an environmental control node on deck three. It’s gonna take us a couple of hours to fix the burn outs but that doesn’t fix the core problem."
"I know, but shutting down the electrics right now isn’t a runner." Hockley replied.
"Yeah I know, sir, but them’s the facts." Benson said.
"Alright, let the bridge know when you’re done." Hockley turned to leave, when Benson spoke again.
"Sir, the survivor, have you heard anything from the doctor?"
"Mind on the job Bos." Hockley replied. "I’ve heard nothing; haven’t asked either. Her best hope is for us to get her back to Earth."
"Yes, sir." Benson agreed in a sombre voice.
____________________
Crowe was standing in front of the main holo, his arms crossed. He had chosen to remain on the main bridge, rather than move to the combat centre outside the centrifuge. The combat centre was better protected, but if they took a direct hit from one of those big missiles, it wouldn’t make any bloody difference.
"Sir, I have the reports from engineering. The Bosun needs at least two solid hours to affect temporary repairs." Hockley reported. "The hull has been pretty much riddled on the port side by missile fragments, everywhere on that side aft of frame D, is no longer capable of being pressurised. We also took three casualties, two fatal."
"Who?"
"Ratings Donaldson and Root - they were hit by fragments, sir."
"I can’t think what either of those men looks like." Crowe admitted.
"That would be Alison Donaldson, sir."
"Damn it." Crowe turned back to the holo.
"What about the enemy, sir?"
"Look for yourself." Crowe shifted himself sideways. "We’ve shut down radar and minimised emissions, but we’re revealing our position every time we fire the engines." He gestured at the holo. "We’re picking them up on the passive sensors. We have two ships, the cruisers I think, holding position, ten kay above us. The cap ship is another ten kay below us, with two of the escorts."
"What about the other four escorts? Where have they got to?" Hockley replied.
"I don’t know." Crowe shook his head. "These asteroids might be protecting us, but they’re also muffling the passives. I don’t know where either they or the support ship are. But if I had to guess, I’d say they’re well out of harms way, rearming from the support ship."
"Ten ships, just to hunt us, one straggler." Hockley asked, his tone was dubious.
"Yeah, worrying."
"Sir?"
"Three possibilities, one, this is just a detached element of their fleet, we’ve been unlucky enough to run into. Two, it’s a group left behind to deal with any stragglers. Three, they I.D.'d us, or at least our class, at Baden, they saw what we did, and they’re now specifically hunting any Luna class cruisers they come across. Particularly since we’re now on our own."
"I don’t like that last one, sir." Hockley admitted.
"Hmm… They’ve already been sitting above and below us for fifty minutes, don’t look like they’re in any kind of hurry. That’s pretty much ruling out option one." Crowe replied. "Personally I think its option two; they’re here to eliminate stragglers and because of Captain bloody Lukeman, we’ve blundered into them."
"The only thing is, sir as far as they know, we could sit in here for weeks." Hockley pointed out.
"Fair point, Commander." Crowe admitted. "I doubt they’re willing to wait weeks; once they’ve rearmed their escorts… then they’ll be ready to make their move."
"They aren’t going to want to fight in here, not with our flak guns."
"Yeah well, there’s a problem there James." Crowe waved towards the weapons board. "The flak guns are about to leave the equation. We have about… six percent of capacity; I’m not sure whether or not to move it all to the aft magazines."
"They don’t know that, sir."
"No, but they’d have to be stupid not to suspect it."
The two officers studied the holo.
"Captain."
Crowe turned toward to new speaker.
"Yes Colwell, do you have something?"
"An observation, sir." Said the Lieutenant, "The groups above and below, us are isolated from one another by the rings. We could exit the upper or lower surface of the rings and try to force ou
r way past, as soon as we clear the rings they’re in range of our plasma cannons. The other group would have to work their way round, or through the ring to support the one we were attacking."
"Except their jump drives don’t have a problem with Mass Shadows. They could jump away from us," Hockley objected, "or the group on the other side, could do a short jump to reinforce them. We’d find ourselves fighting the lot."
"I don’t think so, sir." Colwell replied. "Can I show you something."
Crowe and Hockley followed him over to the tactical sensor console. Colwell typed in commands.
"This is the record of the enemy ships jumping in." Colwell said. "They all dropped in, over six light seconds away from us."
"The last one of their ships that jumped in right on top of us, it didn’t enjoy the experience." Hockley pointed out.
"Yes, sir. But that’s not my point, sir, if you look here. The second group arrives in, at almost exactly the same distance out from the planet. I think. sir, that the Nameless have their own Red Line for their jump drives. If we break through one group, the second group would have to chase us in realspace, where we could out run them." Colwell looked up with a pleased smile.
"I think you’re reading too much into a few passive readings." Hockley said repressively. "Remember they dropped in within a few thousand kilometres of Baden."
"They dropped out six full light seconds away from us; none of our weapons reach beyond half a light second. Why give us so much room, sir?" Colwell replied, "Plus Baden’s mass shadow is pretty shallow. A planet has a much deeper and stronger Mass Shadow; they might not be able to drop as close to, say Earth, as they could to Baden."
"You’re assuming they know the maximum range of our weapons, they could have been playing it cautious. With those damn missiles of theirs, they have no need to get in close anyway." Hockley replied.
"Then, sir, why did the support ship come in at the same distance? Why not further in or out?"
"It’s an interesting theory, Lieutenant." Crowe said finally. "It matches the observed facts, but that’s all it does at the moment. It’s not something we would want rely on," He patted Colwell on the back, "not yet anyway. Might be worth exploring though."
"You have a plan, sir?" Hockley asked.
"More a thought than a plan." Crowe replied as he turned back to the main holo. "The Lieutenant is right about one thing, they’ve got very close to us. If we could stick our noses out of cover, we should be able to nail at least one of them with the plasma cannons."
"If we see a redeployment by jump drive, that will disprove the lieutenant’s theory." Hockley added.
"Thank you, sir." Colwell said behind them
"But if we don’t, it adds weight to it." Crowe replied. "Plus we’ll get to take a look around, hopefully find out where those other escorts have got to."
"We’ll have to wait for the Boson to finish the repairs to the engines, otherwise, sir, that coolant leak will pretty much advertise that we’re coming." Hockley said.
Crowe nodded slowly.
"We’ll make our move in two and half hours. Assuming the Nameless don’t take the initiative."
____________________
Deimos slid silently through the asteroids of the ring, her engines only occasionally firing. Once again the ship was closed up for action. With the lights dimmed, the almost silent bridge was dominated by the main holo; Crowe’s attention was fixed on the two hazy dots, showing the approximate position of the Nameless ships they were closing on.
"Keep it gentle Helm," Crowe ordered, "let’s not give them too much to spot us by."
"Yes, sir." The helmsman replied quietly.
"Helm, no need to whisper, I don’t think those sensors of theirs can hear us." Crowe said, a grin appearing briefly on his face. There was a brief burst of quiet laughter.
"Alright Helm, roll ninety degrees to port. Bridge, Fire Control, prepare to engage to starboard."
"Roger that bridge." Crackled back the intercom. "Powering primary armament now."
"Sensors, any sign of those missing ships?"
"Negative skipper, we’re starting to lose the ships on the other side of the rings."
"Jumping out?"
"No, just so much material between us I can barely make them out."
"Understood."
Deimos continued to crawl slowly upwards, wending its way through the asteroids.
"Sensors, bridge, we’re now two thousand metres from the perimeter of the rings." Colwell reported from his side of the bridge.
"Understood sensors," Crowe replied, "just watch those cruisers."
"Roger."
Deimos’s turrets smoothly swivelled round to starboard, already tracking the enemy cruisers above them, beyond the asteroids. The covers of the four cannons slid aside, plasma pumped into the firing chambers and the barrels started to gently glow.
"Captain," called out the helmsman, "we clear the rings in thirty seconds."
"Thank you helm." Crowe replied. "Bridge, fire control."
"Fire control here."
"Guns, we’re about to get clear," Crowe instructed, "once you have line of sight tak-"
"Captain! The cruisers are firing! We have incoming!" Colwell's shout cut across the command frequency.
On the holo, several blips appeared out of the two icons for the enemy ships, and lanced down towards them.
"Helm! Down! Take us down hard burn!" Crowe shouted.
But at such short range, there was no time to react in. Deimos was still moving forward when the four missiles arrived.
Miscalculation by the Nameless, that was the only thing that saved Deimos from immediate destruction. The four missiles plunged into the asteroid Deimos was passing beneath, the last one before she cleared the rings. The great mountain of ice and rock shuddered under the bombardment, then split sending multi mega tonne boulders lumbering down towards Deimos.
The collision detection system let out a shrill buzz, the helmsman flipped the controls onto manual and twisted them violently.
"Helm, turn us away from them!" Crowe shouted "Then find a way through!"
The helmsman, hunched over his console, didn’t waste his breath replying.
A boulder, bigger than several battleships, tumbled slowly towards them. Even with the engines going full burn it was overtaking them, other lumps, big and small, closed down all escape routes. Then two fragments collided and ricocheted off one another, opening a tiny gap in the tumbling wall of rock. Crowe opened his mouth to shout the order, but the helmsman had already seen the opening. It was more than tight, the manoeuvring engine on the starboard wingtip brushed against the passing rock. The wing was a lightweight structure; usually the first thing to get hit in action they only existed to support the manoeuvring engines. As it was designed to, the connection point to the hull failed immediately. Bent and twisted, the wing tumbled away. But the danger was passed. The shattered asteroid continued to smash its way deeper into the rings, a few fragments would eventually exit from the opposite face of the rings, knocked into a new orbit, but in the mean time Deimos disappeared back into the safety of the asteroids.
____________________
The officers mess was silent, the only illumination an emergency lamp placed in the middle of the table. Leaving Lieutenant Colwell on the bridge, Crowe had called the meeting, hoping that between them they might manage to hammer out a plan. Not that it was looking too hopeful at this point. Deimos was now at rest relative to the surrounding asteroids; the ship’s surviving reactor was operating at the lowest power possible, and nothing bar the passive sensors was switched on. Yet the five Nameless ships were all holding position above and below them, giving every impression they could afford to wait forever.
So far the meeting had lasted twenty minutes and produced exactly zero ideas. The thought that kept going round in Crowe’s head was just how close they’d come. If the gunner up there in the Nameless ship, had just held his fire for another few seconds, Deimos would have
been out in the open with no hope of either dodging or stopping all of the missiles.
There was certainly no doubt about it; even through the asteroids, the Nameless had been able to track them accurately enough for a weapons lock. The asteroids might be muffling the signal, which might explain why they were so close to the rings, alternatively, it might be to reduce the flight time of the missiles. There just wasn’t the information to make an estimate one way or the other. Meanwhile time was ticking away for Colossus, and Crowe wanted to have a long, long discussion with Lukeman about reasonable risk. Possibly using one of the missile fragments that had come to rest inside Deimos after penetrated the hull, to hammer home his point.
"So, does anyone have anything to offer beyond ‘wait them out’?" Crowe asked, as much to break the silence, than in any real hope of a solution.
"Just one thing, sir." Hockley said. "If we’re here for the long haul, there is Junction Station. There are probably extra food supplies available there."
"Just how long are you planning on us staying in here?" Lieutenant Mohsin asked. "We already have, what, two months worth on board."
"It might be necessary, these guys don’t seem to be in any hurry. If we’ve ended up behind the front line they might feel they have no choice but to bottle us up." Hockley replied with a shrug.
"Sir, I can’t see how that-" The gunner started to reply.
"We’re getting off topic." Crowe said cutting off the gunner. "Bosun, what did you see in the way of supplies on Junction?"
At the far end of the table, Benson stirred.
"I’m sorry, sir, I didn’t hear you there."
"Supplies on Junction?" Crowe repeated.
"The cargo spaces seemed to be intact, sir." Benson replied. "We didn’t look very carefully, so I couldn’t say what’s actually there, sir." He paused for a moment before adding, "With respect, sir, I don’t want to go aboard that station again."
Everyone in the room knew what he was referring to, no one made any comment.
The Nameless War Page 24
