by G J Moses
Asteroid Field
SITTING IN HIS command chair, Zeke watched as everyone went about their duties. Juan on systems monitoring, Lillian at fire control, and many more. Each intent on their duties. Yes, he thought with pride, he would match this crew against any in the RGN.
Checking the ship’s position, he saw that they were close to where they would launch the fighters.
“Anything from the buoys?” asked Zeke.
“No, nothing, we should have picked them up by now if they were still active.” Juan replied.
Zeke looked over to Will who was standing behind Juan and nodded.
Upon getting the node, Will raised his right hand with fingers outstretched. Pausing for a few seconds, he raised his fingers as a visual countdown. Counting verbally down from five, Will closed one finger into a fist until none were left. “Launch!” ordered Will.
Isolde, on all channels, repeated the command. “All fighters, launch, I repeat, launch!”.
The main screens which had been showing black with only the light from the distant stars visible now showed the bright engine flares from the launching of the fighters. Normally, the fighters would be shown coming out of fighter bays, but with many being launched from the skin of the ship, the screens were alive with the fighter trails as they blasted away.
“Impressive, that is so impressive.” Hawke said out loud without realizing it.
The fighters from the Lucky Strike, flew out front to merge with the fighters coming from the Fox. Leading the Fox fighters was a red and black fighter with wings decorated like streaming flames.
It was then that Zeke now knew why Meghan was the captain of the Fox. That would have stopped Jeanne from having her own style of fun. And he had to admit, he envied her some. Smiling, he told Hawke to keep him updated on what the fighters reported back.
The fighters moved out as planned. Leapfrogging over each other with the cruiser and destroyer following in the rear. The fighters signaled back a detailed map of the asteroid tunnel allowing the main ships to continue at three quarter speed.
Hours later, with the fighter’s leap frogging as scheduled, they were getting near the choke point. They had been finding the remains of the buoys and maintenance craft along the way. It was obvious they had been destroyed by a heat weapon.
Zeke signaled Hawke to have the fighters start dropping back as planned. As the fighters dropped back, only one continued. Zeke watched the fighter indicator on the screen with intensity.
The lone fighter, with most of his power shutdown to mimic a probe, flew into the designated area known as the choke point. Further and further it went… sending data back… only to suddenly disappear off the screen.
“Hawke?” an anxious Zeke queried.
Bent over the screens by Juan and Caspian, Hawke turned with concern on his face. “Just before we lost communication with Gunner, he relayed back what his scanners were picking up along with the words ‘Chohish Ba…’.”
It was Will who gave a summary of reading the data provided. “Two cruisers sitting motionless in the center of the tunnel.”
With anguish showing on his face, Zeke turned to Will. “Start operation ‘Clear the Way’”.
Pressing several keys, Will started the execution of a group of preset programs for both ships. The Lucky Strike and the Fox, without slowing down, but stopping forward thrust, slowly started flipping until the rear of the ships was now facing forward. The pods containing the missile mines being towed by tractor beams followed suite.
“You still believe this will work?” asked Zeke.
“They have never been deployed this way before that I know of. Hell, what do I know, these are the first missile pods of this type that I have seen? But Jeanne’s crew believes it will, so yeah, it should.” answered Will with a shrug. “Just so you know, we will drop the tractor beams shortly after we let the missiles loose and come back to pick up the pods later.”
“Oh well, not many options open to us anyway. The fighters are to follow close behind. And Hawke, keep the Lucky Strike in front of the fighters with Fox hidden behind. Send out a volley of MK-XIIs in Fire and Forget mode to the last known position of the enemy. Repeat the volleys as fast as we can fire them. Thanks for the update on the pods, I was concerned that they would be a draw on needed ship power resources.” commanded Zeke.
As if on signal, all the pods discharged a score of missile mines. The mines, with the pods already moving at the same speed as the ships, came out with just a little more speed. Just enough to be at a safe distance before the AI ignited their engines to head towards the last reported position of the two enemy cruisers.
The lucky Strike and the Fox did the reverse roll again and merged in with the fighters as they flew on now firing their thrusters at maximum speed.
It was a few tense moments as they entered the area of the choke point. The sensors AI, still getting some sensor data from the fighters, showed the asteroid field thickening up while at the same time tapering inwards dramatically.
With the thickening of the asteroids, the sensors were having a major difficulty reading the surrounding area. It was like flying blind through a thick soup. Seeing this, everyone checked their safety harness for the fifteenth time.
“Jax, we are too blind in here. Drop the tractor beams now! I need more speed. Gunner said ‘Chohish Ba…’. I think he was telling us there is a battleship present.”
“Captain, tractor beams disengaged. I can get you one hundred twenty percent power, but not for long. It will burn up the engines.”
“Make it so. Meghan, catch up when you can. I want to get as close to the battleship as quickly as we can, if there is one.”
As they continued, Zeke could feel the additional pressure brought on by increasing thrust. The dampeners tried to compensate, but it could only handle so much.
Finally, they started emerging from the choke point.
And then they flew right into a maelstrom of exploding mines and MK-XIIs. The Chohish were a lot closer than they had thought.
Their sensors now showed something not seen in the prior sensor data, but Gunner had. The enemy cruisers were not alone. They also had a battleship and over a dozen fighters with it.
“Damn, without Gunners warming we would have come in blind to that ship.’”
“The cruisers looked to have lost most of their shielding and taking severe damage from the missiles. But the battleship is untouched.” reported Juan
“Have the fighters concentrate on the cruiser and fighters. Concentrate all fire from the Lucky Strike and the Fox on the battleship. We need to take that ship out fast. I doubt we could absorb a direct impact from their main weapon in the condition we are in.” ordered Zeke.
“Get us to within our primaries range as quickly as you can. Meghan, once you catch up, you keep the Fox behind us, close, tell your pilots I will up the purse. Jax, make sure you and your crew are ready, looks like we will need them.”
“Will do Zeke. We should be in position in less than a minute at max.” replied Will.
Just at that time, the screens went white before the ship bucked wildly from the near miss of the firing of the main weapon on the enemy battleship.
“That was close Zeke, too close. I think the battleship had not planned for our increased speed and programmed their fire where they expected us to be.” updated Will.
“The Fox?”
“No damage to either ship beyond some skin sensors being fried.” answered Hawke.
“Coming into the primaries range now.” notified Will.
“Fire” ordered Zeke and Will at the same time.
The Lucky Strike made groaning noises as it fired a volley of MK-XIIs while firing all eight of the primaries at the same time. They were close enough that they could see the primaries hit the shields of the battleship. The primary hits looked to have caused only minor damage.
But the battleship had more than its main weapon in its arsenal. The Lucky Strike rocked violently from impacts on t
heir own shields from enemy lasers and missile strikes. Alarms went off signaling damage.
“Isolde silence the alarms, Jax status?” shouted Zeke.
The alarms stopped almost immediately.
“Shields down 30%… minor damage… repair crews on the way… several injuries, but no fatalities… good thing you had them moved back and armored.” replied a harried Jax.
Just then, another set of their missiles arrived at the battleship. The side of the battleship facing them was impacted again and again. Continuous explosions and escaping air could clearly be seen on the main battle screen. The battleship started to roll.
The primaries and the secondaries from the Lucky Strike along with the lasers from the Fox did a coordinated fire and hit the midsection together as one. It was heavily damaged, and smoke and debris were everywhere. But this battleship was huge and built to absorb a lot of damage. Which it proved as it fired a full broadside into the Lucky Strike.
The Lucky Strike rolled and jerked heavily from the hits. Several workstations sizzled before they overloaded and exploded, filling the bridge with smoke while several support beams crashed to the floor. Raising his head, Zeke saw Juan’s body, still at his workstation, crushed under a metal girder.
Even though the ship was hurt bad, Zeke could feel the ship lurch from the familiar rolling when the primaries and secondaries fired.
Watching the main screen, he saw Will and his teams targeting was right on and slammed into the side of the battleship. And following right behind the Lucky Strikes was the laser fire from the Fox. Internal explosions could be seen happening all over the port side of the battleship. And then missiles hit. Smoke and debris hid large sections of the battleship, but it was obvious, it had been hit hard. Slowly, it started clearing.
The battleship hung motionless drifting idly away with no return fire. But Zeke was not about to relax and did not order the cease fire command. The cruiser continued to rock from missile launches. With the battleship hanging lifeless in space, it did not stop the MK-XIIs that it would normally do when fired this close and undamaged. The MK-XIIs slammed into the battleship again and again until there was only a shell of a ship left.
Turning his attention to the battle between the fighters and the cruisers, he saw that that battle was still in full swing. One cruiser was only a shell of what it had been, but the second cruiser was still fighting and mostly intact. It’s shields though, upon closer inspection, looked to be having issues based on the fighter impacts on the skin of the ship. The cruiser had a half dozen fighters running protection around it.
While watching, he saw one of the RGN fighter icons disappear. Just behind that fighter icon came another pair of fighters. It was obvious who these two were as one icon bore the distinctive red and black markings. They were followed closely by a half dozen other icons bearing the New Providence shape.
Both fighters were going directly towards the cruiser in a zig zag manner. Beams and missiles from the cruiser had to be missing them by the merest margins. Several times Zeke thought they were hit only to see them come through untouched.
The two fighters each launched a pair of missiles in unison before both did a fly by down the side of the cruiser. The cruiser was rocked by large explosions. The missiles had been fired in a staggered pattern so two hit the side of the cruiser with the other two following into the cavity created by the prior two. Zeke watched as the cruiser shook mightily with the impact of the latter two missiles.
Before the cruiser could recover, the half dozen fighters that had followed the first two in, launched their missiles at point blank range. They mirrored the tactics just used. The debris from the massive explosions covered up what was happening. All six fighters had turned away after firing, but one, looked to have been hit as it went off in another direction.
Returning his attention to the battleship, Zeke could see it was still out of action. But what he was looking for, he could not find, no escape pods. Something else odd here. Their technologies were not so different as to warrant damage of this sort. This should have been a much tougher fight.
Turning to give Isolde a command, he held his tongue for a few seconds after seeing the pain in her eyes. But as he knew she would, Isolde did not let that affect her work. Orders to her team were concise and constant while having taken over Juan’s duties.
Knowing he was going to make one of the most difficult decisions in his life, one that could get him thrown out of the Navy.
“Put this on the ships log. ‘On my responsibility, Captain Zeke Kinsley of the Lucky Strike, and mine only, I am giving orders that all surviving Chohish be eliminated. We do not have the time nor room to take them in custody. Nor can we leave them where they are able to give warning and information of our disposition to the ships following us. We are fighting for our survival against numerically superior forces, and without us, the population of the two planets in this system, may also perish based on actions consistent with what has already been demonstrated.’”
“Hawke, make it so.” Zeke ordered, knowing his face was showing the pain of having to make this call. Though, from the expression on Hawkes face, it was obvious that he did not share the same loathing.
“Will, status?”
“Both enemy cruisers and battleship have been knocked out of action. All but two enemy fighters have been destroyed. The last two fighters are damaged and will be finished off within a short time. We lost three fighters total, one of ours and two of the New Providence’s. Two pilots were able to eject. Four more are damaged, but thankfully, only one fighter is not able to make their way back on their own. The shuttles have been deployed to recover the pilots and fighter, if possible, and to be available in case any of the others encounter a problem.” updated Will.
“Can you and Hawke take it from here? I want all trace of the Chohish removed. As much as you can do in the next hour. Same for our lost fighters, remove any trace. I do not want anything that will help to tell what happened here to survive if possible. Use all the resources you need.” requested Zeke.
“Sure, what’s up?” inquired a puzzled Hawke.
“Something personal. Once that is completed, have the undamaged fighters back on point like we did before. Jax, how does the engines look, are we good to continue on?”
“Aye, aye skipper, no reported issues with the engines on both ships.” replied Jax.
With that, Zeke made his way over to lean down to hang over Isolde’s shoulder. “Can you bring up the scanner display when we first entered the choke point?”
“No problem… here you are… are you looking for anything in particular?” asked Isolde who seemed choked up now.
Putting his hand on Isolde’s shoulder, Zeke whispered quietly “Isolde, hang in there, I will get him back if he is out there. Any indication of where he could be?”
She put the recorded images on multiple screens so they could see the whole area at one time.
“Hmm… wait… there… go back… see… that looks like a fighter… damaged but just maybe…” an anxious Zeke whispered.
Standing up and running towards the exit Zeke yelled over his shoulder. “Will, you are in charge until I get back. In sixty minutes, you are to resume making your way to Nocuous. Do not wait for anyone, and I mean anyone, including me, that is an order. You cannot stay here; I would not be surprised if there aren’t some ships chasing us. Drop the mines at the tunnel exit. No missile mines. Just follow what we planned earlier.” Zeke ordered.
“Where are you…” queried Will but was unable to complete his question before Zeke was out the door.
Turning to look at Isolde who simply said “Gunner, he is going to go get Gunner.”
Upon hearing that, Will looked over at Hawke with concern on his face.
“This is something that he needs to check on himself…” Hawke said with conviction. “He would not forgive himself if he did not check personally.”
Zeke ran to the lift and impatiently waited. “Shuttle Bay, this is Cap
tain Kinsley. I need a shuttle ASAP. I will be there in less than a minute. I will be piloting the shuttle myself. Zeke out.”
In less than a minute, Zeke was running towards the only shuttle left in the shuttle bay. It had a different configuration than those he was used to, a bit too chunky in the rear for his taste. He made the correct assumption it was a New Providence ship.
There were several maintenance engineers busily removing some cables and fuel tubes. One turned upon hearing Zeke’s running feet. Reaching into the open door on the side of the shuttle, he pulled out a flight suit.
“Captain, the shuttle is ready to go. All systems are green. We topped off the fuel. Lieutenant Masson Dieu-Le-Veut, your pilot, is already on board and running a pre-flight check.” informed the engineer.
“Masson? I did not ask for anyone. I will pilot the shuttle myself.” explained an exasperated Zeke as he sealed the flight suit.
“Sorry Cap, orders from Jeanne personally. Said if you gave me any problem, to go without you.” informed a man in a pilot suit now hanging out the door.
He was about to say something, but he knew that he did not have the time to argue. They needed to get back within less than sixty minutes or they would be left behind. Besides, after seeing Masson in a flight suit that looked like a Buccaneers outfit, he was having a hard time not laughing.
Putting on his suit with the assistance of another technician that had appeared magically, Zeke sprinted into the shuttle. The pilot’s seat was taken by Masson, but that only lasted as long as it took for Zeke to grab Masson by his overlarge lapels and shove him over to the copilot’s seat.
“Buckle up, this is going to get rough.” ordered Zeke.
Without waiting for the all clear signal, Zeke jumped into the pilot’s seat, notified flight control he was making an emergency exit, waited the required thirty seconds, and then thrust the control stick forward flying past the startled service techs. In short order the shuttle was heading back to the choke point.
