The Icarian Legacy Collected Edition: Brave Souls - First Strike (Volume 3)

by Kocho Trajchevski

  Forty rail guns were placed along the main structure and on the hull of the hangar bays.

  Sixty four dual kinetic weapon platforms combined with multiple aegis platforms were placed along the hull, covering its entire length with overlapping fields of fire. It also had twenty four launching platforms that could launch both conventional and nuclear missiles.

  But the biggest difference was in the armor. Eight meters thick steel plates, two meters of titanium, a meter of armor that combined ceramics, carbon nanotubes, and titanium diboride and boron nitrides, and thirty centimeters thick plates of the electrical armor on the outside. The shields were the same as the ones that were first tested but they were far stronger considering the far more powerful engine. The hangar bays had four meter thick armor gates that could be opened and closed.

  Fifteen more ships from this were under construction. Five of the Essex class a class of ship that was pure cruiser without any fighter wings, were also under construction. They were a little bit smaller than the Orion class with two hundred and ten meters long hull, fifty seven meters high and twenty seven meters wide at the nose and forty at the rear section that housed the engines. In difference from the Orion the Essex had one MAC gun same as the Los Angeles Class but it was by far more powerful than either ships. It launched forty five ton projectiles at a speed of hundred and sixty miles per second. It had ten fusion reactors that powered the VASIMR engines. Ten M-100 plasma canons, forty eight rail guns, forty missile launch platforms consisted its main offensive armament. Seventy dual kinetic platforms combined with Aegis platforms constituted its point defense screen.

  The armor was also bigger with ten meters thick steel plates, five meters of titanium and one and a half meter of the composite armor plates of ceramics, carbon nanotubes, and titanium diboride and boron nitrides. It was also the only ship class to have actual shields beside the polarization that was allowed by the electrical armor. The shield emitters that were discovered on the Dacarian Cruiser that was captured, those that weren’t used on the battleship and the cruisers were enough to equip the five ships with shields.

  The Essex class construction was made a priority and all five ships were expected to be finished by the end of the year.

  The easiest construction was made on the space fighters. Considering the long experience with planes, the design of the fighters was quickly adopted and it was rushed in to production. Thousands of fighters came out of the assembly line of factories around the world.

  The air wings of the battleship and the cruisers were returned to full strength during the first months of production and thousands of fighters went with the ships that carried the colonists to the outer planets. Pilots were easy to be found as they were recruited from the Air forces of every country, and even more were trained.

  The fleet conducted regular exercises around the solar system and with each exercise the coordination and efficiency grew. And with that the same happened with its commanders who gained in confidence.

  Johnson looked at the man in his office.

  Captain Jennings was the first man to ever command an Earth space ship, the Deadalus, and the first one to lead a ship in to other system. He led the colonization of the planet Eden helping the transfer of nearly a million people in the past few months and tons of equipment to the largest of world colony. Eden was a planet located in the Alpha Centaury system. One of five but the only one habitable and it was almost Earths twin. He proved himself numerous times and even though he never had a command over a military ship he was the most experienced captain they had. The Deadalus was retrofitted and it was already a ship dedicated to the research that was going to be conducted by NASA and the other space agencies.

  “You have done an excellent job so far captain.”

  The younger officer smiled.

  “Thank you Sir.”

  “As you are well aware the colonization is over at least for the time being and all traces and records of it are being removed.”

  “Yes sir. I expected to be given a new command.”

  “You will take command of the Prometheus the first of the Essex class cruisers that will be operational at the end of the year. Before that you will command the John Paul Jones.”

  “An Orion class Sir?”

  “You seem surprised.”

  Jennings inhaled and looked at the admiral.

  “I expected to be given a command of one of the Los Angeles Class sir, to gain experience.”

  Johnson smiled and stood up. He looked out of the window and then turned back towards the younger captain.

  “You humor me. When it comes to experience you are the most experienced officer we have. You commanded the first space ship, took the first command of the Argus, then the Intrepid, and later the Hestia. You proved yourself time and again commander and so did your crew.”

  “Thank you Sir. But I meant in military sense. I have no experience in that regard not for a long time anyway.”

  “None of us has commander.”

  “Sorry sir. What about the crew?”

  “The John Paul Jones has a crew compliment of 300. You may choose your officers. I believe you will wish to take most of your former crew with you.”

  “Yes sir. And I would like to have them on board the Prometheus as well later on.”

  The admiral smiled at that request. The smile came from the knowledge that as of today Jennings was no longer a captain. He was promoted to admiral on the last meeting of the admiralty and was supposed to take the command of the Centaury system fleet or the Third fleet as it was called.

  “That is yours to choose…admiral.”

  Jennings opened the mouth to respond and stopped. It took a second before the last words of the admiral and their implication to reach him. He looked with a look that showed disbelief at Johnson.

  “Hmm I would…Sir?”

  “You are promoted to admiral captain. You are scheduled to take command of the Third Fleet and conduct exercise with it before taking it in to the Centaury system.”

  As he did that he gave the new rank insignia to Jennings. The younger man smiled.

  “Thank you Sir.”

  “You are welcomed …”

  “Third fleet Sir?”

  “Yes it is a fleet that will be positioned in the Centaury system. It is consisted of three Orion class ships, thirteen Los Angeles, of course the Prometheus that will serve as your flag ship when it is finished.”

  “You plan to hit them in the back don’t you sir.”

  Johnson smiled.

  “I knew you deserve that rank. Yes. You and I bought know that when they come they will leave some kind of defense screen behind. With the technology they have they will easily spot the planetary systems in both Alpha and Proxima and the wealth it offers. Your job will be to lay low until the main fleet transitions to this system and then attack the element it leaves behind. Then transition after the main fleet and hopefully hit it from behind.”

  “Sir…it will be hard considering the power of those ships. As you know we can’t mine that side as we can this one. It will be a pure ship to ship engagement.”

  “Yes. But it is a must. I plan to make a request for at least two of the new Orion class ships and several of the Los Angeles class to be transferred to you.”

  “Thank you Sir. When do I take command?”

  “You will take command at the end of the weak. I will need the crew transfers you would like by tomorrow so that you can start with the exercises immediately after taking command.”

  He handed Jennings a pile of documents that were on his desk.

  “These are the files of the other commanders of the fleet. It will allow you to get to know them better before taking command. One of them is Kirkpatrick. He was my first officer on the carrier. He will command the Farragut the other Orion class. Use him he will help you.”

  Jennings smiled as he took the papers.

  “I will sir. Thank you.”

  “Good admiral. That is all. Good luck
and good hunting.”

  “Thank you Sir.”

  They both stood and shook hands and Jennings left the office. As he passed the halls he got salutes from every one. He got them before too but it was strange now. With his new rank he outranked most of the people he passed. The Space Navy headquarters were placed in a new building that was constructed in Washington. There were rumors of objections from several other nations especially from China, Great Britain and Russia, but considering that the US was the largest investor in the end the decision stayed. The complex was still under construction as new offices were added. The same process was going over the pentagon as the need for a higher protection was seen considering the fire power of their new enemy. And it was happening all over the world.

  The name EFSF (Earth Federation Space Fleet) didn’t last very long.

  Instead it was renamed in to EDSF or Earth Defense Space Fleet.

  The ranks remained the same with Levin as the fleet commander. Most of the officers commanding the fleet and the personal came from the US and Britain but the individual ships were commanded by commanders from the countries that built the ships. The separation was till there but the mutual need and the imminent danger kept the old rivalries quiet and the trust was slowly growing. The regular fleet exercises helped a lot about that considering how often they were conducted.

  Jennings opened the files as he entered the car that was driving him home. He looked at the names of his commanders.

  He had a mixed crew. Most were from the US but there were also from Russia, China, Britain, France and one from South Africa.

  The battle cruisers were under British, and US command. The mixing came with the submarines.

  He looked at the names.

  He already knew about Robert Kirkpatrick. The relatively young captain was a good officer. And considering that he was second in command of the carrier Abraham Lincoln during the battle in the Mediterranean he had experience in fighting the aliens.

  The commander of the British ship The Prince Royal was Captain Elisabeth Hutchinson a forty five year old captain in the Royal navy. She was an experienced captain having a command over several destroyers and frigates during her long career.

  Captains Connor, Macintyre, Anderson, Roberts and Evans were the five US captains of the five Los Angeles ships the Maryland, Nebraska, Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson and Argonaut.

  Captains Ivanov and Kamarov commanded the two Russian subs, the Yuri Dolgorukiy and the Kursk.

  Kamarov was the commander of the Russian submarine that was involved in the first battle.

  The Chinese were represented by two ships the Sun Tzy and the Chien commanded by Wu Thao and Li Quang.

  The two other British ships were the Resolution and the Repulse and were under the command of captains Terence Laurence and Jason Web.

  Captain Maxim Reteau was the commander of the Vigilant.

  The last ship was the one under command of Captain Andre Ratala the Manthatisi.

  The fleet already conducted exercises for the past two months so he guessed that they won’t have trouble with coordinating although considering that they will operate alone as a far smaller fleet than the First and second Fleets a lot of work was ahead of them.

  As he did that he already started making plans of how to best utilize his ships.

  18 March 2019 21:00 hours

  USS John Paul Jones Sol System

  Jennings closed his eyes for a moment. He took command of the fleet two days ago and immediately conducted the exercises. He was pleased from the first two days. The fleet coordinated well and each ship had remarkable scoring results. They were operating independently from the first and second fleet considering that they were on a different mission. They had one more month of exercises before transitioning through the warp point to Proxima Centaury. He got the good news from the last meeting from Admiral Johnson about the ten more ships that were going to be added to his group.

  Two more were Orion’s, five Los Angeles’s, and two corvettes that were being constructed by the Terra Nova shipyard on Ceres.

  It increased his fleet to twenty six ships and gave him a lot more additional fire power. They were also presenting him with a problem considering that they were still at least seven maybe even eight months away from completion so he would have trouble integrating them with the squadrons. But that was a problem for another time.

  The crews showed remarkable communication and he was surprised that there was no tension. There were the wishes for competing and showing of but that was good. It made everyone work harder and increased morale. He briefed the commanders about their mission on the first meeting. They all knew what was being asked from them and the fact that they might not succeed.

  He reviewed the information that the AI’s had about the Dacarians. The info was old, really old but it could still prove useful. At least the comparing with the way the behaved in the battle on Earth almost two years ago showed some similarities. They seemed to operate in a similar way that humanity was planning. They used lots of fighters with well-armed heavy ships as support for the carriers and dreadnoughts and battleships. In the information about the past engagements it was obvious that a Hyperion D Class battleship like the Argus was more than capable of confronting even several of those ships, and the AI’s after reviewing the information about the capabilities of the Dacarian cruiser claimed that it was still the same. They had some doubts considering the fact that a lot of time past since the last conflict but it seemed that the Dacarians although made some advancements were still relaying on the old technologies. They were mostly using plasma and laser weapons, but also had powerful rail gun batteries. The point defenses were impressive so that ruled out the attack with the vipers at least before they could be softened. With the five Orion class ships he had 200 vipers at his disposal. He also had thirty shuttles, a less powerful model than the raptors on board the Argus but still they were good for launching missile attacks. He was exercising the option for using them for launching nuclear missiles at close range.

  His biggest problem and fear was not from the enemy weapons but from their sensors. The fleet had to stay hidden until the main fleet transitions through the Warp Point. And even if it was smaller than the First and Second Fleet it was still hard to hide twenty six ships.

  He reviewed the composition of the Centaury system, the Alpha, Beta and Proxima Centaury.

  “We might use the bright radiation and hide with the power systems down, silent running. Have to confer with Anaya about that, she might run simulations with the sensors from the Argus.”

  He decided to do that the next time he had a chance to talk to Anaya and turned his thoughts to other matters. As he did that outside the work continued.

  The Ceres mining system was already under way, and the construction of the shipyard was starting. The factory ship was close to its destination, and with the increasing productivity in the other mining sites in the Asteroid Belt the Argus and the two cruisers were planned to be placed for their final retrofitting inside the belt as soon as the Ceres shipyard became operational. For that to happen sooner both the Navy and the other mining corporations joined forces with the Terra Nova Mining Company and that increased the speed in which the base was being built. Considering that the shipyard that the Terra Nova was building was small for housing ships of the size of the three ancient ships a second shipyard, this one under the control of the navy was being built on the other side of Ceres. Considering that Terra Nova got the mining rights for Ceres a deal was struck that after it was finished the shipyard will be a joint venture from all involved. The Navy didn’t object considering the huge investments that had to be put in it and neither did the mining corporations who all knew what owning a shipyard from that size would mean in the future.

  Humanity was preparing for the invasion as fast as it could. Nothing, not even the huge risks that had to be taken in order to open the mines in the asteroid belt, not even the constant death toll that happened regularly as accidents happen
ed, especially among the new recruits, nothing scared them. It was strange to see people from all six continents working together, former enemies working side by side. No matter what religion, what problems they had between them for the first time in their history everyone knew of one fact… that they are all humans, and that they all have a common enemy.

  The D- Day was fast approaching, now less than a year away and they all knew that they will be ready for it when it comes.

  The warp point was constantly guarded and now was already mined with over two thousand nuclear bombs placed around it. None was active for the moment but they could all be activated in less than a second.

  Several years ago the production of new powerful nuclear weapons was forbidden. Now the weapons were mass produced. The ones placed around the warp point were drifting from twenty five to three hundred megatons and five more each in the range on five hundred megatons were planned to be placed in the next couple of months. When the enemy would transit from the warp point he was going to be in for a rude surprise. And even if he survives the nuclear Armageddon that was waiting for him he would have a fleet waiting as well.

  According to the AI once long ago they considered humanity’s ancestors for their greatest enemies. They would see that that enemy is still here and is ready to exact his revenge.

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  12 SEPTEMBER 2019 19:21 hours

  Ceres Shipyards Ceres Sol System

  Le Blanc looked with amazement at the site that stretched before his eyes. He was standing on the edge of the small ridge above the Piazzi crater. And before his eyes he could see the magnificence of what he managed to accomplish in the last year. The sun so distant from here was still giving it’s warmth as much as it could, and above all it was giving dim light. The temperature was 40 degrees below zero which considering there was no atmosphere was pretty warm. In his white space suit he was standing out on the shady grey surface.