Ambush

by G J Moses

  “OK, everyone, grab a seat. Save three seats together up front there for our guests from the Fox. Coffee, tea and other hot and cold drinks are there on the table to the left along with some snacks. Grab them now as this meeting is going to be short and concise.” notified Will.

  After only several moments or so, Jeanne, wearing her trademark hat, sauntered in with a swagger followed by a woman in a New Providence naval captain’s uniform, both trailed by Jan.

  “Hello everyone, good to see you all again.” a cheerful Jeanne exclaimed while sweeping her hat off in a flourish. “Glad you did not start on the appetizers until we got here. I hate getting to a meeting and only finding the leftovers.”

  Just a few steps behind Jeanne, Jan commented in his gruff voice “HA! Like that matters with you. You eat like a bird.”

  “A finicky bird though, a very finicky bird.” bantered back Jeanne with a smile upon her face.

  “Hello Jeanne, who is that with you??” asked Zeke while indicating the woman following her with a gesture of his hand.

  “Hello Zeke, that is Captain Meghan Kennedy, formally the captain of the Devil’s Doom, now the captain of Fox. We lost the Devil’s Doom at the same time we lost the Black Doubloon. She is one of the best captains in the business.”

  Seeing the question mark on Zeke’s face, Jeanne continued. “I am in overall command of all New Providence forces and who knows where that will take me.”

  “Good to meet you Meghan. I have been told that since leaving orbit, the Fox has stayed within our envelope close enough that anyone scanning should not notice you until right on top of us. Good job there. I would like to keep the Fox as a surprise for as long as I can.” said Zeke.

  “Hello Captain Kinsley, I would like to take credit, but that would be my two senior pilots Hai Gao and Masson Dieu-Le-Veut. Those pilots are having a personal competition on how close they can get to your ship. Not sure if Hawke told you that they have been following as close as three thousand yards.” responded Meghan cheerily.

  Looking over at Hawke with a surprised question mark on his face, Zeke replied. “No Meghan, that little tidbit of information seems to have slipped his reports. And upon seeing the sly smirk on Mr. Hawke’s face, I would not be surprised if Hawke, instead of reporting it, wanted to join your two pilots in their game. But please put a halt to that immediately, we cannot afford any accidents at this time.

  “Already done, as best I can anyway. Unfortunately, this is common with pilots from Tortuga. There is a large purse waiting on someone to beat the current record of fifteen hundred yards over two million miles. And since that current holder, a certain Captain of the former Black Doubloon, who now also happens to be on the Fox, you can imagine the inducement thrust upon them. Especially since they had direct orders from that individual to stay as close as possible to the Lucky Strike.” replied Meghan with a big smile on her face without turning sideways to look at Jeanne whose innocent facial expression never changed.

  “Hmm… good thing that certain Captain is not piloting the Fox then, huh? That irresponsible Captain might have been tempted to beat her own record and we might be digging the Fox out of the rear end of the Lucky Strike.” quipped Jan.

  At that, a smile and a chuckle escaped Jeanne.

  Butting in, Zeke addressed Jeanne. “Jeanne, we were successful in communicating with Nocuous. We had a good discussion with Governor Rayna. Will can give you an update once we are done here. As we planned earlier, we kept you out of the connection and discussion so if the conversation was being eavesdropped on, they would not become aware of the Fox.”

  Standing up and using the controls in front of him, Hawke took control of the main conference screen. The display dimmed, then brightened after which several images flashed past before it centered on a display of space containing a large asteroid field that was impressive in size. It went on and on. Several gasps were heard when the display zoomed into a narrow channel barely visible.

  “I am guessing Hawke, that is the channel we intend to traverse?” asked Will.

  “Yes, you are correct. It took many years for that tunnel to be created. And it takes a lot to keep it that way. The asteroids move around a good bit so hence all the buoys and maintenance. We should reach the range of the buoys in a couple of hours. But we are going to proceed under the assumption that they will not be there. We, that being Zeke, Gunner and I, do not think that the Chohish have tampered too much with the tunnel beyond destroying the buoys as it is our belief that they have plans on using it themselves. And the asteroids should not have become too intrusive yet, we hope anyway.”

  Speaking up, Isolde asked. “Going through at the speed we are now traveling at; it would be suicide without buoys. So, my friend, knowing you and Zeke, you have a plan to get around that. Want to let us in on it.”

  “We would so hate to disappoint you Isolde, so here it is what we were thinking of. Just before we reach the tunnel, we launch all the fighters. They will act as our buoys and advance warning. One thing we were informed is that our sensors will have a major issue due to the asteroid’s makeup. They will be limited and short ranged. We would be very surprised if the Chohish did not leave a ship or two in there.”

  “The fighters are going to leapfrog over each other in a random order so as not to present a solid target. As they cycle through, the one just relieved will drop back, refuel and take up the back most position. We do not expect to meet any blocking force until we are about three quarters of the way through. We base that on information provided us to us by Corporal Alexandre Algernon. Per the Corporal, that is where the tunnel is at the narrowest and the asteroids are the densest. Just prior to reaching what we believe is their detection range, if they are positioned where we expect them to be, we will pull the fighters back into our envelope to mask their presence.”

  “Hawke, that is going to be very hard to do with all the fighters we have. A normal fighter squadron would fit within the envelope, but with what we have now, that is beyond me how you plan to do that.” asked Will.

  “Jamie, Gunner, Zeke and I are working on that. Hopefully, we will have that worked out shortly. Jeanne, we could use your help on that too. But let me continue. The Fox is to stay close behind the Lucky Strike when, if, we meet the Chohish. Once contact is made, the Fox will fire their missiles in conjunction with the Lucky Strike so any systems tracking will think it came from just one ship. With our two inoperable missile bays, it should pass. It will slow down the firing speed of the Lucky Strike, but we need to keep the Fox secret for now. Again, keeping the Fox secret, is a priority.”

  “Can I ask why?” queried Meghan.

  “Because if the Chohish know that there are multiple ships, this will change their firing solutions. The Lucky Strike has updated and vastly better point defense than the Fox, even with the upgrades you made. It is better they concentrate their fire on us.”

  “Meghan, what is your status on your fighters?” asked Hawke.

  After a quick glance at Jeanne, who nodded her head affirmatively, Meghan responded by walking up to Hawke and taking his control pad.

  “I hope this damn thing works like ours… should… ok, seems like I have a good connection.” Opening one of side screens to show the Fox exterior, Meghan took the image into a docking bay where five fighters, crammed in, were visible. One fighter closest to the bay door, was decorated in the red and black everyone knew by now. “We moved everything we could into the passageways to fit a few more fighters. There is a smaller docking bay on the other side that holds several shuttles.”

  Pulling the display out to show the skin of the destroyer, Meghan took the view shown on a quick tour to show the eight fighters along with half a dozen shuttles attached to the skin. “We do not have the hardened skin like the Lucky Strike, so it was easier to attach fighters to the skin of the ship. And I am glad to hear we will launch prior to any action as these fighters will take longer to launch and would impact our point defense tremendously.”

&nbs
p; “Jamie, what was your final disposition?” asked Hawke.

  “We were able to fit seven fighters in fighter bay A, three shuttles and four more fighters in shuttle bay B, with thirteen fighters and six shuttles on the skin. Most, not all, ships on the skin will not impact the point defense as the skin had been destroyed. When we made what repairs we could, we rebuilt the point defense to accommodate the fighters. But we will not be able to take the same amount of punishment as we did before. We have a lot of areas that only have patchwork armor.” updated Jamie.

  “Jax, move all unnecessary personnel out of those immediate areas. Any that need to stay, I want armored as much as possible. Let’s try and minimize any potential casualties. See what you can do in the short time we have left to put additional armor on the skin and reinforce the interior structure.” ordered Zeke.

  “On it already Zeke, we will do what we can, but time and options will be very limited. I will get with one of my staff, his family is ship construction, to see what he suggests.” responded Jax.

  “Here is a simulation of the fighter leapfrog that we want to implement once in the tunnel.” informed Hawke as he brought up the simulation. It showed fighters scattered around the tunnel. At first it looked like they were unorganized until you watched the pattern closely.

  “The fighters in the first wave will stay at the maximum detection range from the second with the other waves following in the same manner. The last wave will relay back to the Lucky Strike and the Fox. That way, if the Chohish detects the approaching fighters, our exposure should be limited. The two main ships should not be detected, only the first wave of fighters would be visible. If the Chohish scanners are on par with ours anyway. That is our hope anyway.”

  Standing to move closer to the screen, Jeanne scrutinized the layout of the fighters. “I am gathering the reason the first fighter wave is scattered around the tunnel is to allow full scanner coverage. Although it would not be good if they run into the Chohish as spread out as they are, but I would imagine there are not many options open to us. I like it.” observed Jeanne.

  Using a control wand to highlight several of the fighters, Hawke addressed Meghan. “These are yours. The idea being we keep your fighters positioned so that once we get to the area where we need to pull them back, they can do so quickly. The fighters being faster than the cruiser and destroyer, will jump ahead, go inert on all electronics except for their sensors and broadcast. They are to mimic buoys. We have been updating all the fighters with the proper software and codes. We need quite a few fighters to map the tunnel properly if we are going to maintain speed. They will guide the main ships through the tunnel. There will be a total of four layers of fighters leapfrogging. We must use four layers so we can map far enough in front of us to allow for course or speed changes. The fighters will have passive sensors on only.”

  “So, if the Chohish intercept any transmissions or track a fighter, it is possible they might think it is a buoy they missed.” concluded a smiling Jeanne.

  “Once we reach the bottleneck, where we believe the enemy will be waiting, all fighters will slow their advance to fall behind their assigned ships. They will group and close in behind the appropriate ship without risking collision. We will need all fighters to get through this so stress the importance of safety here folks. Meghan… you got that? Once we identify what is waiting for us, we can decide how to deploy the fighters. Questions?” asked Hawke?

  “Yes, I have a couple.” replied Jeanne. “Without the fighters, how do we know if they have any ships there or have blocked the tunnel? The bottleneck is just a term for the tunnel being much narrower here. It is not blocked.”

  Zeke spoke up at this time. “There are several issues we have to work around. The main problem being our sensors, since they will not be anywhere near their normal scope. Corporal Algernon sent us extensive detail on what it will be like. Not good, not good at all. The sensory data will be very sketchy and short ranged. Hence why we needed to have the fighters out front in force to map the tunnel for the capital ships. Without the fighters, we would have to reduce speed to less than tenth power. Not acceptable. The other is that we could run right into the enemy before we even knew they were there.”

  Moving so he stood alone, he pointed up to the screen. “Up until now, it made sense to send the fighters en mass so they could do proper mapping. But with the narrowing of the tunnel, it would be potentially suicidal to continue in the same manner. We need to peek through the narrow section until we are past it where we can then resume the fighter mapping. We cannot send drones; they would give away our presence while being very limited in taking any unanticipated action necessary based on what is found there. We only have one shot at this, so we need to do this right. We have to let one fighter continue on and look at what awaits us.”

  Looking around, Zeke could see the question on their faces. Zeke kept a side glance on Isolde as he continued. “We need someone heavily experienced, so we get the right data the first time. Lieutenant Gunner Morison has already volunteered for this mission. And this is not open to discussion. Lieutenant Morison volunteered before we even reached Niflhel. And to answer your unspoken question, yes, this has been in the planning since then. A man I am proud to call my friend.”

  “It is only my duty, sir” Gunner quietly spoke.

  Every eye was looking at a man who showed he was embarrassed by all the attention drawn to him. All except for Isolde, who had turned around to hide her face from the conference room. Only Zeke could see her hands over her mouth with her eyes downcast.

  Turning sideways, Jeanne, who was sitting next to Meghan, turned sideways where she sidled up to Meghan’s left side to mask her discreetly pinging Hawke’s earpiece. “I may be wrong, but your friends’ actions do not seem to be a surprise to your crew. Why is that?” asked Jeanne with a questioning tone in her voice.

  Watching the embarrassed Gunner intently, Hawke answered Jeanne quietly. “Because, Zeke is well known for respecting and backing his crew. Recently, an admiral in the middle of a major engagement, was threatening one of Zeke’s fighter lieutenants with a court martial because he had changed his groups attack pattern in the middle of battle”

  “Signaling to channel the Admiral to the bridge speakers, he informed the admiral that his fighter lieutenant was doing exactly what Zeke expected him to do, make a call based upon the combat situation he finds himself in. That the lieutenant was doing what he was supposed to do. Everyone on the bridge listened in as the Admiral told Zeke that officers were supposed to follow commands no matter what, that the commanding officers know best. Without pause, once the Admiral finished speaking, Zeke ordered that lieutenant to finish what he started. That did not go over well. You can guess who was informed that he was going to be thrown out of the RGN, if the admiral had anything to say about it.”

  Turning, Hawke looked at Jeanne with a sly smile on his face. “That certain admiral is no longer in the RGN. That action, you may be familiar with, as it was in New Providence. Yes, Gunner, was that lieutenant fighter pilot that blasted through your formation over Tortuga with his squads following. That was the last major action and ended the war with minimal losses on both sides.”

  Looking back at Gunner, Jeanne responded with admiration showing in her expression and eyes. “I was there. I remember that fighter leading the attack. He had turned so quickly in the face of overwhelming laser fire and under such a tight turn, we never thought he would make it successfully, let alone return fire the whole time. But to our amazement, it was not just him, but his entire squadron along with two other squadrons that had followed him. We were caught by total surprise. They could have shot a good many of us out of space we were so out of position due to his maneuver. But even though we heard the missile locks, their fighters never fired. We sat there waiting when they radio’ d us that is not why they were here. Their action is what ended the war. How could we continue on against such bravery and honor like that?”

  “Do you remember why you
did not pay so much attention to Gunner and his squad until too late? That certain cruiser flying into your fighter formations like it was a fighter?” queried Hawke. “I will give you one guess what cruiser that was…”.

  Jerking her head up in surprise, Jeanne looked directly at Hawke where there was no mistaking she had guessed correctly. “The Lucky Strike… well… I guess I should not be so surprised.”

  “When he saw Gunner’s action, Zeke understood immediately what Gunner saw. And that without support Gunner would fail. But then again, Gunner, knowing Zeke would understand what he was attempting, expected Zeke to follow. They really do work well together.” At which point Hawke started chuckling behind his hands.

  “You should have seen Zeke then on that bridge. The admiral was yelling at him as he left the formation. Zeke turned to us, standing tall and in command. He shrugged while listening to the admiral ranting at him and told the crew that he would not abandon his fighters. He notified the crew that each could enter a formal complaint upon their return.”

  Leaning down to mask her question to Hawke…”and were there any?”

  “Not a one.” replied Hawke. “Not a one! In fact, over ninety percent of the crew volunteered for this mission once they knew Zeke was going to be the Captain in charge. I did too, but then again, I always do. Where Zeke goes, I go. But unlike the others, I do not have much of a choice, as Zeke said, he and I need to save the human race.” laughed Hawke.

  Watching Isolde guardedly, Zeke saw her grab the table edge in front of her. If he did not know better, he would swear she was about to fall… better get over there… no, she straightened up, wiping her eyes. ‘Good, do not bring attention to her, better wrap this up.”

  “OK people, any more questions? No, then let’s get ready. Meghan, let us know when your fighters are ready to deploy. Have your fighter Captain coordinate with Gunner. I would like to deploy in thirty minutes, if possible. Good luck everyone, we are going to need it to get through this in one piece.” ordered Zeke.