Hell's Razer

by S. F. Edwards

  “Nash be telling me that it be due to the nebula. Interference, latency, and such, unless we be wanting to run cable between the Powell and our own ships. And we be needing live comms to be truly convincing.”

  “Understood, how are you heading over there?”

  “We be hitching a ride on the reinforcements. Command be sending the Sixty-Fifth Cruiser Squadron to be backing us up.”

  Blazer whistled. The Sixty-Fifth was a highly decorated Drashig cruiser group with an impressive number of ship to ship kills. “Nice ride to take into battle.”

  Before Trevis could reply, Blazer felt a link come through on his micomm and he held up a hand. It came straight from Tadeh Qudas.

  Briefing Room Three

  The rest of the team had already arrived before Blazer, Chris, and Arion strode in. Tadeh Qudas was already waiting up at the podium. “Sorry, had to come from the flight deck, what’s the op?”

  Tadeh Qudas waved the trio to their seats and activated a hologram. The system that appeared didn’t seem to be anything special and after a moment the distress signal began. The whole team listened intently, exchanging looks at the mention of the ship’s origin. Even Blazer wasn’t sure how to feel about this. Galactic Federation refugees were nothing new, of course, but they usually turned themselves over to Confed near a deep space trade lane. For them to have crash-landed in an out of the way system like Orcain, one even Matt scratched his temple about in a show of confusion, was striking him as odd.

  “Betelgeuse,” Gavit muttered. “That’s deep Geffer territory. Even with some opportune jump points, that’s a long trip.”

  “Never mind that,” Chris commented. “Why us? Why even go after them now? Aren’t we gearing up to take down the Satan?”

  Matt licked his lips at that. “Hate to miss the party.”

  Tadeh Qudas emerged out of the hologram, his voice sounding even colder than normal. “Put simply, we are the closest Confed ship to Orcain with a rescue team aboard,” he brought up a sector map. “Current plots put a rescue launched from here at two cycles travel each way assuming current hyperspace drift.” Several more systems lit up. “Any other team is over four cycles out each way and that’s only if the drift figures are correct. And,” he continued, highlighting the next battlegroup. “That team is currently engaged with a Geffer strike group that may belong to the Barker battlegroup.” Dozens of such assaults had plagued the region for the last tridec. The latest round of offenses made it seem like the Galactic Federation had assumed that the Inferno had succeeded in destroying the Wolfsbane.

  Blazer looked at Gokhead. “What does Que Dee say?”

  The beeping metallic voice echoed from the side of Gokhead’s skull. “Figures are correct and fit with current hyperspace drift projections.”

  “Still doesn’t answer my question, why not wait?” Chris asked.

  Tadeh Qudas brought up an image of the Odysseus. It wasn’t anything special to Blazer’s eyes, a typical long-range transport. “Intelligence reports that around the time the Odysseus left Betelgeuse, the system’s governor and several intelligence officers had also disappeared.”

  That got everyone’s attention and Blazer sat forwards in response. “Do we have ident cards on them?”

  Fuzzy holograms of five human males appeared. With medium builds and darker features, there was nothing remarkable in appearance about any of them. What they represented however, was critical.

  “Would the Governor have been privy to any data regarding the Barker?” Zithe asked.

  “It is possible,” Tadeh Qudas replied. It was no secret that the Barker had waited out the Gorvian Conflict in Betelgeuse for a ‘refit.’ “Our analysis of the jump point snare also revealed that despite being of Pharad design, the materials were mined and processed in Betelgeuse.”

  “So we’re looking at high priority targets, ones the Geffers aren’t likely to let go easily,” Blazer remarked. He looked over at Zithe and Arion. “Quick smash and grab. We go in, rescue the refugees and blow out of the system before the Geffers know that we were there.”

  “The Captain wants this to go smoothly and wants that Governor, so select any backup you need,” Tadeh Qudas commented.

  Blazer winked at the hologram and it shifted to show the reinforcements that had just entered the system. A list appeared beside the images: two Scarab shaped Ormu-Balhet Heavy Cruisers, with massive external beam turrets lining their garishly painted hulls and anachronistic boxy full-length flight decks along their bellies. Flanking the two larger ships were six Irobyargh Corvettes (two in jamming configuration). The smaller Drashig ships appeared like miniature versions of the larger cruisers with similarly eye-offending paint schemes. Finally, there were four Stingray class cruisers. The Lodran craft looked like blocky versions of their namesakes; impressively large engines buried close in to their long central body, and at the tip of their tails, enclosed for the moment, were large-bore crystal-focused beam cannons.

  Blazer twitched his eye at the Ormu-Balhets and the list expanded to show their internal craft complements. They were both packed with fighter squadrons, more than their normal complement, obviously replacements for those lost battling the Inferno. Blazer highlighted the marine dropship squadron aboard the lead ship. Six Scarset class tactical dropships, some of the smallest craft to fit a hyperdrive, also appeared. Sleek and scarab-shaped like their mothership, they could each carry a dozen troops. More importantly to Blazer, they were fast and heavily armed - ideal escort gunships.

  Blazer exchanged a quick look with the rest of the team. Everyone nodded. “We’ll take them, better helping us than sitting here waiting. Plus our marines are already busy patching the Wolfsbane’s hull.”

  Tadeh Qudas nodded. “Prep your gear and launch when ready.”

  Bridge, UCSBS-Wolfsbane

  “Those corvettes will be nearly invisible against the nebula,” Commander Salgou commented from beside the tactical holo-sphere on the main level. “There’s no way the Geffers will ever get a visual on them once they’re in-system.”

  Captain Sardenon looked at his replacement XO. Despite his medical staff’s heroic efforts, they simply didn’t have the facilities to completely heal Commander Vetter. So he’d been sent back to more comprehensive facilities a decle earlier. Instead, at Commander Vetter’s recommendation, he promoted a second officer from the Archen, his lead destroyer, to the post.

  The Captain had had little contact with Commander Salgou before the man’s transfer. A marine, he was a capable leader of those under his command, but was more accustomed to small unit combat than larger fleet engagements. His statement just reinforced that point. “That will only come into play if the nebula provides the interference we expect.”

  The Captain had to admit though, that the smooth organic lines and garish green and yellow paint scheme would allow the corvette to blend into the nebula with ease. The scarab-shaped craft had a certain aesthetic grace to them that most warships didn’t possess. Even their wide-spaced engine nacelles followed those flowing lines, interrupted only by their engine ports.

  Drashig crews did love to decorate their ships. Even the array of anti-fighter, light, and medium-bore twin beam cannon turrets were festooned with what most would consider as nothing more than graffiti. Built on scaled-down versions of the basic frame of the Wolfsbane’s own hyperplaser turrets, the weapons were more vulnerable than typical beam cannons. They made up for that with better fields of fire and greater ease of field maintenance.

  Sia waved a hand towards one of the two larger cruisers from the tactical station. “The Var-Fowne is launching our replacement fighters, handing them off to landing control. They’re also ready to begin transfer of replacement turrets at our ready.”

  “Good,” the Captain replied and turned towards the orange-red nightmare. “Lim, see that they’re integrated into our space wing as soon as possible: Sia, inform Crae that I want those
turrets online as soon as practical.”

  Bearing a striking resemblance to the smaller corvettes, the Ormu-Balhet cruisers were one of the oldest designs in known space. Similarly festooned with arrays of light to heavy beam turrets, the design had served the Confederation since before its inception. Originally a Vedekian design, the ancient destroyers had encountered fierce resistance on the Drashig homeworld and their intended slaves had captured dozens of the ships to use against their oppressors. A modern Ormu-Balhet, while visually similar to its ancient counterpart, was an entirely new ship; systems never dreamt of by the Vedekian had been packed within its elegant lines. Elegant, that is. except for the massive, open-ended flight deck that ran along its belly. A recent retrofit, the boxy hull stood out on the garish hull, making the craft even more displeasing to the eye.

  Lim, the Lodran fighter operations officer, let out a low whistle as the quartet of Stingray cruisers pulled alongside. The Captain noticed that. “You served aboard a Stingray?”

  Office Mioshay shook her four-eyed countenance. “No sir, this is the closest I’ve ever been, though both my father and grandfather did. They’re lovelier than they described.”

  “That they are,” Captain Sardenon replied, taking in the beauty of the coral blue hulls. A truly Lodran design, the Stingray had evolved from a pre-Confed submersible. Gone were the smooth, flowing, hydrodynamic lines that created laminar flow, to be replaced with the far more serviceable hard edges and flat surfaces of a purely spaceborne craft.

  The rough shape still remained however, with an impressive pair of engine arrays buried at the root of the ‘wings.’ But the most important feature was the tail. Within it resided one of the single largest production beam cannons in Confed space. The massive plasma-focussing crystal, smaller arrays of which made up the focusing lenses of most beam cannons, served as the core of the weapon. When fired, that massive cannon would produce enough thrust to allow the cruiser to outrun most bombers. Therefore, it was common to employ the cruisers in vicious slashing attacks when they weren’t being used as long-range artillery pieces.

  Commander Salgou watched the Captain as he moved the ships about in the tactical holosphere. “Have you fought with Stingrays before, sir?”

  “A few times,” he replied and set them on the fringes of the projected battle zone in the Vorg Nebula, where the GFS Powell awaited them.

  “Then why are you placing them near the edge of the battle zone?”

  “I don’t want to reveal our hand too early. Keeping them as long-range artillery will keep them same safe and no less effective.” The Captain played a simulation where the Stingrays would fire, reposition, and fire again in rapid succession. “If we keep them hitting and moving, we can make our force seem much larger. We have the nebula and its interference, let’s use it to our advantage.”

  Commander Salgou looked over the ship placements again. All of them were situated no closer than half a light-pulse from the trap location with some as far out as half a light-hect. Each moved in erratic patterns. “Looks like that’s the thrust of your plan for the whole battlegroup.”

  “The Inferno and her assault force did a good job of keeping us pinned. I want to return the favor when we take on the Barker. Our fighter and bomber wings will get plenty of natural cover to handle the close-in work.”

  “But why not use the corvettes in slashing attacks?” Salgou asked, drawing a series of attack and retreat courses.

  The Captain brought up a projected losses chart. It was grim indeed. All projections called for the Wolfsbane to lose up to half her battlegroup and some even predicted the loss of the carrier itself. “A more conservative, long-range engagement is our best course of action for minimum casualties, especially with how badly the Wolfsbane was damaged in our last engagement. While High Command might want us to take the Satan mostly intact, I don’t see that happening.” He tapped a key and a simulation played out at four times normal speed. “Let’s face it, we’re going in blind when it comes to knowing anything about the Satan battlegroup’s makeup. They could be coming in with twice the number of ships we have, or half, or with just the Satan itself. Best to let the space wing take them first then move in for the slugfest with the big guns only when we have to.”

  “The Admiral seems confident in the intelligence.”

  Captain Sardenon raised a half-annoyed eyebrow at his new Executive Officer. Commander Salgou had proved a decent replacement to Commander Vetter, but he had none of the man’s tactical space sense. Any Commander who took intel at face value would invariably lead their crew into a trap. While the Admiral was indeed confident in the data, their enigmatic battlegroup commander had doubts. Salgou could handle the administrative duties the Captain had always dodged, so long as he stayed out of the way in the battle to come.

  The Captain made to say something and noticed Homi turning towards him, hand to his comms earpiece. “Sir, incoming link from the Var-Fowne.”

  “Patch it through,” Captain Sardenon ordered and a two-dimensional hologram snapped to life beside the tactical hologram a moment later.

  Beaming with pride, the Captain straightened his stance as the Drashig Captain of the Var-Fowne appeared. Half the fur of her left snout had been burned away, leaving only streaks of darkened flesh, and a vision-enhancing visor over that eye which fed data straight to what remained of its optic nerve. The flat projection took on three dimensions until the two captains seemed to stand face to face. “Captain Rila Leval, UCSBS Var-Fowne with the Sixty-Fifth Cruiser Squadron reporting as per orders, Sir. Inspection passes complete and we are entering formation, with what is left of our battlegroup.”

  “Good to have you back, very glad to have you back under my command, Captain,” Captain Sardenon replied motioning towards his old XOs new rank and command pips, his smile full of pride. “As for what happened to MY battlegroup, I blame you,” he went on with a wry smile.

  “I can’t pull your furry tail out of every exploding star, now can I?” she laughed.

  “That star bomb was no joke.”

  “No, it wasn’t. It’s good to be back, but still,” she said, stroking something the cameras failed to transmit. “I prefer my new ride. It’s still shiny and has that new ship smell.”

  Captain Sardenon’s nose wrinkled in disgust. “New ships stink of paint and outgassing,” he laughed. He looked up at the floating clock beside the tactical hologram. “Have your senior staff as well as your other captains ready for secure conference in three hects to discuss the order of battle.”

  “Copy that, Sir. I’m attaching a few battle plans of my own for your review based on our number, the latest intel on the enemy’s strengths, as well as my own estimates.”

  That brought a wicked smile to Sardenon’s lips and made him wish his old XO hadn’t been promoted. “Much appreciated. I’ll review and we can discuss in three hects.”

  “Yes sir, Var-Fowne out,” Captain Leval replied with a salute and wink, cutting the link.

  “Damn,” Sardenon replied, his hand hovering over the link terminate key. “She beat me to it.”

  “Captain” an icy voice called.

  The captain turned slowly to meet Tadeh Qudas’ gaze and he sniffed the air. Still nothing, does he wear a scent mask all the time? He turned to face the Telshin Battle Chief as he studied the hologram. “Tadeh Qudas, are your people ready?”

  “The Blade Force are gearing up and their dropships are readying as we speak. The Explosions are on launch stand-by, awaiting your orders.”

  “Good,” he replied and highlighted a particular set of contacts near the Powell. “You think they can handle it?”

  Tadeh Qudas didn’t wheel on the Captain but he might as well have, the cock of his head hitting like a slap to the face. “I trained them and took their command. They can do as ordered.”

  “Which why I wanted them for this. Officer Mioshay, link me in with their flight leader.”

  Multiple views of the launch bay to Hangar 5 appeared, with six fighte
rs waiting on catapults. A final window appeared, revealing a man who looked barely able to fit in the cockpit even without his bulky combat armor on. “This be Monstero Nach Zero Two, Captain. We all be standing by.”

  “Explosions Lead, Wolfsbane Actual, upon arriving at the GFS-Powell you will unseal your orders and install the hardware we’ve had sent ahead. Your orders beyond that are currently outside of the general chain of command and can only be changed by direct, confirmed order from the Admiral or myself. Is that understood?

  “Aye, Sir,” Trevis replied, his brow furrowed. “Be we playing like The App Trays?”

  The Captain turned to Tadeh Qudas who nodded, never once taking his visage from the dancing lights of the sphere. He returned his gaze to Trevis. “You were trained well. Good luck out there and don’t screw up. But do live up to your motto.”

  “Aye, sir. We be keeping Five on a short leash until we be getting the go. Explosions Lead, out.”

  The Captain tapped the terminate key and Trevis disappeared before the fighters launched one by one. He looked back through the holo-sphere at Commander Salgou, a look of concern etching his face. “What?”

  “Sir, I don’t see the Explosions anywhere here on the Order of Battle. Just what mission are you assigning them?” he asked, edging away from Tadeh Qudas.

  The Captain turned to Tadeh Qudas and raised a hand to him. “They will fight as Telshins fight. For now, outside of the Captain, Admiral, myself, and them, that is all anyone need know.”

  “But…” Salgou began before Tadeh Qudas turned his full glare upon the XO. The Captain just watched, and could almost feel the commander freeze under the assault.

  “Tadeh Qudas, I would like you and Commandant Dane to ready the escort plans for the refugees and any contingencies should we be boarded. I want his troops ready to go. Salgou, I want you to review Captain Leval’s plans and meet me in my ready room in two hects.”