The Landfall Campaign (The Nameless War)

by Edmond Barrett

  “Captain, we’ll have jump capability in seven minutes,” called out the navigator as Berg entered the bridge. As the last crewmember got their helmet on the compartment started to depressurise.

  “Understood. Counter Measures, full spread as soon as we make real space re-entry. Fire Control, stand ready to engage, point defence on standard pattern.”

  “All sections confirm closed up and ready for action,” her second-in-command called back as Berg buckled herself in.

  “Understood. Jump out in two minutes.”

  The jump portal opened ahead of Mantis. The time in jump space would only a few seconds before the destroyer dropped back into real space. Point defence commenced firing the moment they crossed the portal threshold.

  “New contacts! Missiles incoming on reciprocating course! Enemy vessel, bearing three, five, four dash three, four, nine. Range one hundred and ten thousand K.”

  “Bridge, fire control. We’ll have firing range in two minutes.”

  “Understood fire control. Fire as soon as you have range.”

  The Nameless ship was nearly stationary, going translucent as it began to jump away. The missiles, one cap ship missile and two general purpose, were the standard Nameless counter to interception. Mantis’s fire control computer was programmed to expect and respond, all three missiles died at twenty thousand kilometres.

  “We have firing range,” announced fire control. “Firing!”

  On the main holo the radar contact of the Nameless ship was fading fast. The computer added the projected course of the four bolts. They crossed through and a moment later it disappeared completely. There was no bloom of radar returns that would indicate wreckage.

  “Bridge, fire control, that’s a miss. Target completed jump out.”

  “Damn, we nearly had them! Understood, Fire Control. Maybe next time. Navigator, calculate a jump to our second position and pass to helm,” Berg said as she unbuckled. “Oh, and spin up the centrifuge again. We might as well get some benefit from this.”

  _____________________

  “Commander Hock…” Commodore Crowe cut himself off short and gave his second-in-command an apologetic smile. He still kept expecting to see Commander James Hockley, but he’d joined the massed ranks of those left behind. His replacement was a solid if distinctly humourless man. “Commander Bhudraja. I expect to return by nineteen hundred hours. I’m not sure what the Admiral’s plans for us are but I want the fuel bunkers and ammunition magazines fully loaded by the time I get back.”

  “Yes sir,” the big Sikh officer replied. “The tanker is due alongside in three quarters of an hour. The ammunition tender is due in two hours and loading won’t take too long.” Bhudraja frowned briefly. Deimos hadn’t had too many opportunities to fire since returning from Operation Kite String. The sweeps into the contested solar systems had continued but mysteriously the Nameless seemed to have largely withdrawn. Their last sweep had been aimed at half a dozen known gates and found that three appeared to have been removed and the other three scuttled. Going by FTL reports and couriers from Earth, fighting was still taking place but mostly around Rosa Station, at the rim end of the Junction Line. At the far end the fighting seemed to have settled into a pattern of skirmishes but since the Aèllr had built a fleet base on Hydra’s flank there had been no large-scale actions. Nameless scouts were still coming and going in and around the systems surrounding Junction, but nothing bigger had been sighted in over two months.

  “Make sure we get any other consumables we need. If memory serves, the Vicksburg and her escort are due in today.”

  “I hear she’s been described as ‘the locust’,” Bhudraja replied.

  “Not very diplomatic but not far off the truth,” Crowe said as he shrugged on his jacket and picked up his survival suit. Alright Commander, the ship is yours.”

  The little work pod jetted away from Deimos’s flank towards the hive of activity around Junction Station. Not much light penetrated the rings that protected the station so even though the distance was only a few kilometres not much detail could be made out. What could be seen were navigation lights and the brief blue flares of engines. A couple of cargo ships had arrived in Deimos’s absence and big lights mounted on the outsides of their hulls lit up the names of their shipping lines, while the shuttles and tugs buzzing around them unloading supplies resembled a swarm of fireflies. One of the hydrogen skimmers was docking at the refinery complex, its searchlights focused on the docking points, while another skimmer could be distinguished by the deeper stronger flare of its engines as it slowly climbed up into the rings en route to the planet. Junction was a mass of individual lights. The station had been steadily expanding since the fleet had first arrived. It consisted mainly of cargo modules but an entire new centrifuge was now also half-built. The original station was almost unrecognisable now, which was not a bad thing to Crowe’s way of thinking. Unlike their civilian counterparts, the warships weren’t lit up. The battleship Renown was just visible as a brooding shadow and the rest held positions at the edges of the open area around Junction, only detectable because Crowe could see their transponders on the work pod’s navigation screen.

  “We’ll have a full house when Vicksburg arrives,” Crowe grunted.

  “Yes sir,” the pilot replied politely.

  “I’ve just downloaded to your pads the latest intelligence to be forwarded from Earth. The stuff from here you’ll already know but I would ask you to read through the reports from Rosa and Hydra,” Laura Lewis said once they had all settled themselves. “But let me give you the gist of it. The frontline has gone quiet. There is some serious fighting still going on around Rosa but not on the same scale as a few months ago. Needless to say the analysts back home can’t agree why. The theory that is generally being held as the most plausible is that the Nameless are preparing for a big op, but as to where or when this will happen, they have little to offer.”

  “Typical,” someone muttered.

  “Rosa appears to be the weakest link, but spacing and distance between the stars in that region would put a serious limitation on their line of advance. Plus the fuelling station at Lone Star is only about a fortnight from operational. Since Lone Star is over seven light years from its nearest neighbour, there is a good chance the Nameless don’t know it exists, but it does mean that a if they do break through at Rosa, the Junction Line will hinge backwards to Lone Star.”

  “Any update on our reserve position?” asked Kander looking up from his pad.

  “A location has been identified but it’s going to be at least a month before work starts and five before it will be part operational,” Laura replied.

  Kander rolled his eyes.

  “Headquarters should put your husband in charge. He’d light fires under a few asses.”

  “Probably not metaphorically,” Laura replied. “Anyway an advance through Hydra is thought even more unlikely. It is believed that there has been at least one exchange of fire between the Nameless and the Aèllr forces on Hydra’s flank.”

  “Do we know the result of that?” Crowe asked. “In terms of casualties on either side?”

  “No,” Laura replied with a shake of her head. “The Aèllr are saying nothing, to the point of denying anything happened at all. A recon unit out of Hydra did observe one of the Aèllr heavy cruisers leave the area with damage, but whether this was due to weapons fire was unclear.”

  “Bloody wonder they haven’t folded like a sponge,” said Commodore Villar.

  “Well apparently not and it looks like whatever the Aèllr believe, the Nameless don’t want to try to go through them right now.”

  “So that leaves us. Where they haven’t had much success in the past,” Kander said.

  “Yes. The Nameless have tried, we all remember that and how badly it ended for them,” Laura replied.

  “So Intelligence thinks the Nameless are going to attack but

  not here, not Rosa and not Hydra. There’s a joke in there somewhere,” Villar said h
umourlessly.

  “Are they offering any other possibilities?” Crowe asked.

  “There is a minority view that after Kite String the Nameless have decided to reduce Landfall before reattempting to break through to Earth.” Laura’s expression was grim as her eyes flicked towards Crowe.

  Personally, the news that Douglas Base was being abandoned and that there was nothing they could do about it had been a hard blow to bear. The American base had also seen the writing on the wall and was actively organising a breakout. In Deimos’s crew quarters there had been long and at times heated conversations on whether the convoy had ever been worth it.

  “If more transport resources are being committed to the occupation of Landfall it might explain the lack of mobile units here,” Kander said.

  “It might, but that’s a minority view,” Laura replied

  “Well there isn’t much point in continuing sweeps that see nothing,” Kander added.

  “I agree,” Crowe said. “If the Nameless do make a move against us, we’ll need to keep as many ships as possible close by. But I’d like to keep my ships moving. Sitting around will take the edge off my crew.”

  “I would agree with that but I don’t want there to be no offensive action,” Kander commented.

  “Vicksburg isn’t much use for defensive ops anyway so continue to send her out,” Villar suggested.

  The two Admirals looked at each other.

  “That seems reasonable,” Kander said after a moment’s thought. “Probably rotate the ships sent as her escort.”

  The meeting covered a few more, fairly minor matters, interrupted only by an announcement from the station command deck that the Vicksburg group had jumped in. Crowe hurried back to Deimos shortly afterwards, just in case they needed to move out in support but there remained no sign of the Nameless. By the time the big strike boat carrier threaded her way into the rings and had taken station at the inner marker, Crowe had retired to his bunk.

  23rd October 2067

  When the main alarm sounded Berg’s muffled curse launched a blob of toothpaste from her mouth, which with the centrifuge barely moving then drifted across the cabin. She didn’t waste time trying to retrieve it and instead shoved her earpiece in and began to struggle into her survival suit.

  “This is Berg. Bridge report.”

  “Ma’am, we’ve just observed an enemy fleet jumping into the system.”

  Berg hesitated, “Bridge, confirm you said fleet.”

  “That’s confirmed Skipper. Passives make it at least sixty ships, range seven light minutes.”

  “Understood. I’m on my way up.”

  The passives were still working their way through the mass of overlapping signals by the time Berg reached her bridge. Immediately she could see oddities. The Nameless had come out only marginally inside the Red Line of the planet Phyose, nowhere near their closest possible jump in point. In fact they were so close to the Red Line they were in a vulnerable position. A Battle Fleet ship could jump in on the red line and immediately have them in plasma cannon range. Oh for a battleship, Berg thought to herself as she looked around the destroyer’s bridge. One destroyer might take out more than her own tonnage but wouldn’t survive the attack.

  “Do we have the positions of the rest of our squadron?” she asked.

  “Yes ma’am.” On the main holo the presumed positions of the destroyers Stingray and Scorpion appeared. Both were further out, respectively twenty and forty light minutes away so neither would yet be aware of the Nameless arrival. Junction Station would have detected the Nameless several minutes before Mantis and would soon be powering up the FTL transmitter.

  They could make a jump to the far side of the planet and then run for the rings to join the close defence of Junction but the odds were the Nameless didn’t yet realise Mantis was there. That offered possibilities.

  “Communications, put a laser onto the satellite at the rendezvous point. Instruct it to pass along that we are going to hold position and observe.”

  “Confirmed Captain.”

  “We’ll see what we can do,” Berg muttered half to herself.

  _____________________

  “Report,” Crowe demanded as he strode onto Deimos’s bridge.

  “Communications hook up from Junction, sir,” said the officer of the day. “A Nameless fleet has just jumped in, sir. Putting it up on the holo now, sir.”

  Crowe frowned as he studied the holo. They had dropped back into real space much further out from the planet than was their usual practice.

  “Bridge, coms. Analysis from Junction is making it sixty-three ships.”

  “Doubt it. Probably more,” Crowe commented as he glanced towards the status board. The flak guns and point defence were already online, while the engines and plasma cannons were warming up. But at this point the Nameless were still a minimum of six hours away from firing range. All around Junction, warships were bringing their combat systems online.

  As he pulled on his survival suit Crowe looked thoughtfully at the holo. The sixty or seventy enemy ships out there was a pretty formidable force, no doubt about it, but the Nameless had fielded bigger fleets in the past. If they tried sending that many into the planetary rings, the Battle Fleet ships would eat them alive. So why were they here? Most previous assaults had attempted to make use of their ability to jump in closer to a planet to ambush Battle Fleet ships and achieve local superiority long enough to overwhelm the defender. This kind of… blatant jump in seemed sort of clumsy. If their past actions were anything to go by, the Nameless had reasons for everything and whenever they did something new, it tended to be a painful experience.

  “Bridge, Coms. We’ve got a hook up from Admiral Lewis.”

  “My screen.” A moment later Laura Lewis appeared on his personal screen.

  “Ronan, I need you to get out there,” she said without preamble. “A couple of the skimmers are there and I want them escorted back into the rings. I’m sending the tenth destroyer squadron and Envoy with you.”

  “Understood, Admiral.”

  “Just escort them to the inner edge. They can make their way in through the rings once they’re in cover. When you’re done with them escort Envoy out and let her get a good look at what we’re facing.”

  “How far out?” Crowe asked.

  “As far as you judge safe.”

  “Against sixty ships, that isn’t going to be very close,” he warned.

  “So be it Commodore. Get on with it.”

  As soon as they cleared the rings the two hydrogen skimmers appeared on radar. One had already been on the way back and was dumping its cargo to run faster while the other was still approaching the planet, although it had swung round and was now braking hard. Deimos and the rest soon had them hustled back into the safety of the rings.

  With that done, they set course towards the Nameless fleet.

  “Well, sir, it looks like they’ve gone for a tight deployment,” Captain Talina said across the laser link from Envoy. “I’m pretty sure that’s deliberate so their signals overlap and hide their numbers.”

  “I think we taught them that trick,” Crowe commented.

  “Well, it isn’t going to work against our optical sensors.” The scout cruiser’s sensors outclassed those of Deimos. “Now we’re coasting and they aren’t trying to compensate for engine vibrations I can give you a firm count of sixty nine hostile combat units, with up to seven big support ships and six smaller ones.”

  “That’s a lot of support ships, Captain. They only had eight at Alpha Centauri when they had a fleet several times bigger,” Crowe said.

  “My tactical section isn’t entirely sure on that count.” Captain Talina’s face was replaced by a still from Envoy’s optical sensors. “These ones, sir, here and here,” a pointer circled two of the support ships, “they match the profiles of the ships seen at Alpha Centauri last year. The small ones, they’ve also been seen before on the Nameless side of the Junction Line. These four though,” the pointer circ
led around the remaining four large ships, “this design profile is not on record. There is clear design commonality between the other large support ships though. They might just be another design of transport ship.”

  “Maybe,” Crowe murmured. That was one thing that had been noticed early on in the war. The Nameless seemed to have a strong preference for standardised designs. God only knew what they were like on the inside but in terms of external identification, so far only two types of scout ship had been identified, one type of escort, two slightly different designs of cruisers and two of capital ships. Battle Fleet in contrast had gone into this war with seven different classes of cruisers alone. There were some groups within the fleet that took this as proof of a communist style command economy. That was a bit too much of a stretch for Crowe but he had come to the conclusion that something new meant trouble. Talina’s voice broke his concentration.

  “I’m sorry Captain. What did you say?”

  “I said they might just be intending a close siege. Those transports could be exactly what they look like,” Talina said.

  “Or they might be something completely different.”

  “How much closer are you prepared to get, sir?”

  Deimos’s navigator was keeping a rolling plot of how long it would take them to return to the ring. The figure was already up to fifty minutes. The Nameless had started to move in but were taking their time. The new Nameless transports seemed to be none too nimble and the rest of the fleet was keeping its acceleration down to match.

  “Three hours out. Then I intend to launch a fighter for a closer look while we hold range.”

  _____________________