The Terran Fleet Command Saga BoxSet

by Tori Harris

  "I have both targets, sir. Firing," Lau announced.

  To port, the converged energy beams had much the same effect as before, slicing completely through the dark, carbonaceous rock. This time, however, the resulting explosive expansion pulverized the target into what looked like nothing more than an expanding dust cloud on the view screen. Simultaneously, the four railgun turrets mounted near the frigate’s bow opened up with streams made up of thousands of kinetic energy penetration rounds flying at nearly ten percent the speed of light. To the Human eye, both the time to impact and its results were identical to that of the directed energy weapon. The stony, S-type asteroid simply disappeared from the view screen in a cloud of dust.

  "Targets two and three destroyed," the range AI announced. "Please proceed to the next waypoint."

  Once again, Ensign Fisher dutifully guided Ingenuity to the next exercise by following the green brackets displayed in space on the bridge view screen.

  "Good job so far, everyone," Prescott said, "I assume each exercise is progressively more complex, so stay on your toes."

  "Please stop your vessel for further instructions," the range AI directed as the frigate arrived at the next waypoint. "The next exercise will involve more complex targets. In addition to the inanimate targets you have already encountered, drones as well as manned spacecraft may also enter the range. These targets are capable of evasive maneuvers and may return fire with a variety of weapons. For the purposes of this exercise, you may assume that all targets present on the range are known to be hostile. All directed energy weapons have been set to their lowest power settings. Missile and kinetic energy weapons fire will be simulated and scored by the range AI. Please note that range safety protocols have been applied to your vessel’s AI to prevent accidental collisions with other ships and objects present within the range boundaries."

  Prescott exchanged a sideways glance with Commander Reynolds. "You did notice that she said ‘manned’ spacecraft, right?"

  "I did indeed," Reynolds answered, smiling.

  "Maybe we’ll get the opportunity to reestablish our reputation as ‘first and best.’"

  "That would be great, but I also wonder if Admiral Patterson might be looking to see whether we are up to the challenge of being a true warship. If that’s the case, I’d say they will make things pretty hard on us."

  "You might just be on to something there. So you recommend we assume an, uh, somewhat aggressive posture?"

  "I recommend we go straight at them and hit them hard and fast with everything we have."

  "I don’t disagree, Commander, but just to make sure we’re on the same page going forward, why don’t you take this engagement. You have the bridge."

  "Aye, sir, I have the bridge," Reynolds replied enthusiastically. "Thank you, sir."

  "Don’t thank me yet. Our reputation is in your hands, Commander," Prescott retorted with a distinctly serious look on his face.

  As if on cue, the range controller AI’s synthetic voice once again came over the bridge speakers. "Warning, the range is now active. The next series of targets is designed to provide practice across a broad range of tactical skills. Engage and destroy the targets using all of the weapons and systems at your disposal while avoiding damage from incoming fire."

  Commander Reynolds had no intention of waiting until she was under fire before acting. "Lieutenant Commander Schmidt, I assume the Hunters are ready for launch, are they not?"

  "Yes, ma’am, all eight of them are armed and ready."

  Ingenuity’s hastily completed weapons installation refit at the Yucca Mountain Shipyard had increased her complement of the versatile RPSVs from four to eight.

  "Launch them all immediately. I want them in coordinated anti-ship strike mode. Have them form up out of the way, but in a position to engage whatever targets might appear. Lieutenant Lau will be busy handling Ingenuity’s weapon systems, so you will manage the Hunters from the Engineering console. Questions?"

  "No questions, Commander. Flight Ops has acknowledged the launch order. Showing four zero seconds to launch."

  "Acknowledged. Helm, go ahead and take us downrange a bit. The range is hot, so I don’t see any reason for us to be a stationary target. Listen for my commands, but remember that you have full authority to maneuver the ship as appropriate to bring weapons to bear or avoid incoming fire."

  "Aye, Commander," Fisher answered, always happy to have an opportunity to do things his way.

  "Lieutenant Lau, all weapons ready?"

  "Aye, Commander. All charged and ready. Missile tubes configured for anti-ship."

  "Very good, give me a tactical plot of the range and leave it up on the starboard view screen please."

  With a few quick keystrokes, Lau displayed an overhead view of the space surrounding Ingenuity on the right side of the view screen. The tactical plot was designed primarily to enhance situational awareness and, as such, emphasized those contacts deemed most urgent by the ship’s AI. As threats increased in significance during combat, they were displayed more prominently on the plot. Contacts deemed of lesser immediate significance were displayed with smaller icons and more muted colors, or not at all, depending on the commander’s preferences. For his part, Prescott wasn’t sure he liked the new tactical plot at all, generally preferring instead to make his own determination as to which contacts required his attention first. Reynolds, on the other hand, had taken to the new display right away and had found it to be very effective in combat simulations.

  "Contact," Lieutenant Lau announced. "Looks like a target drone configured to simulate a small corvette, Commander. I think they have detected us. Looks like they’re running for it."

  "Maximum thrust, Ensign Fisher. Close that target. Lieutenant Lau, let’s hold off launching any missiles at such a small target. He’ll probably just dodge them anyway."

  "Missile launch!" Lau yelled, the adrenaline rush once again getting the better of him. "They just ripple-fired eight missiles from their vertical launch cells. Time to impact, four zero seconds."

  "Lieutenant Commander Schmidt, launch countermeasures. Will the Hunters be in a position to knock down any of those missiles?"

  "Countermeasures, aye. Negative on the Hunter intercept, Commander. The RPSVs are away, but will not have a firing solution on the missiles."

  "Very well, beam and kinetic weapons to point-defense mode. Take down those missiles, Lau. Helm, evasive action. Put some distance between us and the countermeasures."

  Fisher rolled Ingenuity over onto her back, diving away from the decoys designed to duplicate the emissions characteristics of the frigate and fool the incoming missiles into chasing them instead. The maneuver made for an inconvenient tracking situation, both for the inbound missiles as well as the frigate’s point-defense weapons attempting to engage them. Ingenuity’s ventral railgun turrets still had a good firing solution, however. The fully articulating mounts swiveled in the direction of the incoming missiles and immediately began laying down a dispersed pattern of projectiles. When in point defense mode, the railgun’s rounds were designed to fragment at a specified distance downrange, filling the intervening space between the ship and the incoming missiles with a moving wall of destruction.

  "Four missiles went for the decoys," Lau reported. "The remaining four are still locked onto us. Time to impact, one five seconds."

  Reynolds glanced at the tactical plot. The four remaining missiles were now displayed in an ominous pulsating red as they rapidly closed the remaining distance.

  "Missiles have reached our point defense barrier. Three more destroyed! Time to impact on the remaining missile, zero nine seconds. Sea-whiz is engaging."

  At eight locations along Ingenuity’s stern, a combination of mini railgun and energy turrets deployed from small, recessed bays within the ship’s hull.

  Still generally referred to as "sea-whiz," the Close-In Weapon System, or CIWS, had been a fixture aboard terrestrial naval vessels for centuries. During that entire time, the system’s goa
l had remain unchanged: engage and destroy inbound ordnance in a last ditch effort to prevent an impact with the ship. Even the weapons themselves had similarities to their twentieth century counterparts. Unlike their predecessors, however, modern CIWS systems were enhanced with several key Pelaran technologies, dramatically improving both their firepower and accuracy. In fact, Ingenuity’s newly installed CIWS provided a nearly one hundred percent kill probability for up to three simultaneous inbound targets. The success rate dropped dramatically with more than three targets to intercept, however. There simply was not enough time to engage and destroy a large number of targets within the system’s minimal range. In every sense, CIWS was the ship’s last line of defense.

  All eight of Ingenuity’s sea-whiz mounts had an unobscured view of the last incoming anti-ship missile as it closed rapidly on the fleeing frigate’s stern. The AI-controlled weapons locked onto the missile and immediately began filling the intervening space with a lethal curtain of kinetic energy rounds. Each gun emplacement also included an energy cannon, all eight of which sliced through the relatively fragile outer skin of the missile, disabling its engine and rendering its guidance and payload delivery systems inoperative. Since this was a Terran-designed anti-ship missile, it carried no propellant that might have otherwise created a spectacular explosion. Even with no thrust, the missile continued on its previous path until reaching the barrage of fragments laid down by the CIWS railguns and was finally ripped to shreds. Pieces of the simulated missile still impacted Ingenuity’s hull, including the now inert warhead, but the range AI calculated that the frigate had escaped this first salvo with no damage.

  "Sea-whiz confirmed kill. All missiles destroyed. Range AI reports no damage, ma’am," Lieutenant Lau reported triumphantly from Tactical.

  "Glad to hear it, Mr. Lau, but let’s not congratulate ourselves just yet. That little corvette very nearly punched our ticket for us. Ensign Fisher, get us in range to return fire."

  "Aye, Commander. She has stopped running and looks to be trying to flank us. We’ll be in weapons range in one five seconds."

  "Flank us?" Reynolds took a quick look at the tactical plot. Something about the corvette’s tactics didn’t seem quite right.

  "Do we have any idea how many missiles they have left?"

  "She’s not one of the three new starship classes we were just provided schematics for, so it’s impossible to say for sure," Schmidt responded. "If we can assume the imagery provided by the range controller reflects the actual configuration, it looks like she has sixteen vertical launch cells compared to our sixty-four."

  Reynolds turned to stare at her captain. "They were trying to draw us off, weren’t they?"

  Prescott had his poker face on, giving her only raised eyebrows and a mischievous grin in reply.

  "Lieutenant Commander Schmidt, I want you to assume that corvette’s mission was to lure us to one side of the range before an additional threat appears on the other side. Deploy our Hunters to cover what you think is the most likely threat axis. If any contacts appear, attack immediately. Don’t wait for my order."

  "Aye, Commander. I know where I’d want to be if I were them."

  "Perfect. We’ll need the Hunters to at least keep any other ships that show up busy while we deal with this corvette."

  Schmidt had already turned the small squadron of RPSVs away from Ingenuity to lessen the potential for collision. They now streaked off toward the far end of the range in attack formation and at maximum speed.

  "Weapons range in zero five seconds, Commander," Lieutenant Lau warned.

  "They’ve had the initiative long enough," Reynolds said. "Let’s give them something to think about. Fire two missiles now. As soon as you close to optimum range, let’s try the plasma torpedoes."

  "Missiles away," Lau responded immediately. "Impact in two three seconds. Optimum torpedo range in one zero seconds. The target is maneuvering and launching countermeasures."

  "I’m sure he is. Stay with him, Fisher."

  "He’s pretty fast, ma’am," Ensign Fisher reported. "It’s not clear yet if we can catch him."

  "New contacts!" Lieutenant Commander Schmidt yelled excitedly from the Engineering console. "Two Ingenuity-class frigates just dropped out of hyperspace near the entrance to the range. They’re pretty close to where we thought they would be, Commander. The Hunters are almost on top of them and have already engaged."

  TFS Diligence and TFS Industrious arrived precisely on time and in precisely the location directed by Admiral Patterson. Their mission was to participate in a simulated live-fire training exercise with the now famous first ship of their class and, with any luck, serve up a little humble pie in the process. They had been told to expect the range controller to draw Ingenuity away from their ingress location so that they would have an opportunity to deploy their two-ship formation for maximum effectiveness. Instead, the ships had emerged from hyperspace only to immediately come under attack by a small swarm of Hunter RPSVs.

  Although the Hunters were largely controlled by the ship’s AI, Lieutenant Commander Schmidt had a great deal of flexibility in determining how they executed their mission. With his Engineering console in tactical mode, the top three recommended attack profiles were summarized by the AI and presented in order of their probability of success. Schmidt modified the parameters slightly so that the entire formation of RPSVs would concentrate their firepower on one of the two frigates. In response, the AI immediately recalculated its recommended attack profiles, increasing the odds on option one to ninety-four percent. Schmidt smiled inwardly as he directed the AI to execute attack profile one. Seconds later, a total of forty-eight HB-7 missiles had been launched from close to their minimum range at TFS Industrious, with another four heading for the Diligence in hopes of keeping them off balance.

  "Firing plasma torpedoes," Lieutenant Lau reported, still wholly focused on the fleeing corvette. "One of our missiles is still locked. It will most likely miss, but it’s keeping them busy."

  On either side of the frigate’s hull, massive quantities of energetic plasma had been pumped into large compression chambers. With Lieutenant Lau’s command to fire, the pressurized cavities were explosively opened to space and tremendous voltages applied to rails lining their inner walls. The compressed bolt of plasma was then accelerated down the rails in a manner very similar to that used by the ship’s railguns. Since the plasma itself was electrically conductive, however, much higher velocities were possible. Depending on the ship’s ability to generate power, speeds up to thirty percent of the speed of light had been demonstrated. Although Ingenuity didn’t quite pack the excess power-generating capacity available in larger warships like the Navajo-class cruisers, her plasma "torpedoes" still streaked away at nearly twenty percent the speed of light. Total flight time to the target was less than a hundredth of a second.

  "Commander, we had a proximity detonation on the second missile and direct hits with both torpedoes. The range AI reports …"

  "Target four destroyed," the range AI announced, interrupting Lieutenant Lau and causing a relieved ripple of laughter on Ingenuity’s bridge.

  Reynolds once again glanced over at the tactical plot, this time displaying no immediate threat other than the two distant frigates, both of which had their hands full at the moment.

  "Jeez, Schmidt, remind me never to piss you off," she said, smiling as a cloud of simulated missiles converged on the enemy ships. "Helm, close with the two frigates. I’d like to spend as little time inside their weapons range as possible. Give us a high speed pass so that Lau has time to get in a few shots, then try to avoid giving them a firing solution."

  "Aye, Commander," Fisher replied. With the destruction of the corvette, he had already turned Ingenuity in the direction of the other two targets and now once again brought the sublight engines to maximum power.

  At the opposite end of the range, and with almost no time to mount an effective defense, TFS Industrious was hit by a devastating thirty-nine of the origina
l forty-eight missiles fired. The HB-7 missiles carried by the Hunters were small to allow the RPSVs to carry as many as possible. Even so, their warheads still packed an impressive yield rivaling the much longer-range strike missiles carried by Fleet’s warships. As the missiles reached their target, the range controller AI modelled their impacts on the frigate in exquisite detail. Within milliseconds, it was determined that Industrious’ hull had been breached in twenty-four locations, three of which led to catastrophic failure of her antimatter containment systems, destroying the ship outright.

  "Target five destroyed," the range AI announced over Ingenuity’s bridge speakers.

  "One missile hit on the remaining frigate, Commander," Schmidt reported. "Fairly minor damage from what I can tell, but the Hunters did do some damage with their railguns before she picked them off. All eight RPSVs have now been destroyed. The frigate is still in the fight, but there is damage around her fore and aft vertical launch cells as well as her port energy cannons."

  "Nice job, Schmidt. Lieutenant Lau, Tactical now has battlespace authority on the remaining target."

  "Acknowledged, Commander," Lau replied, taking over for Lieutenant Schmidt at the Engineering console. "Firing solution in two five seconds."

  "Ensign Fisher, turn us just inside the range bubble you see on the tactical plot. Lieutenant Lau, fire all weapons once you have a solution. I also want an eight-missile salvo. We had a hard time evading eight missiles, so if she’s already damaged, it may just finish her off."

  With only seconds remaining before Ingenuity reached weapons range, Lieutenant Dubashi spoke up for the first time since the battle began. "Commander, TFS Diligence is hailing. They are striking their colors!"

  Although unable to fly the various flags and battle standards used by their counterparts in terrestrial navies for centuries, Terran Fleet Command vessels and facilities continually exchanged data that served a similar purpose. The encrypted data streams provided a significant amount of information including message traffic, current status, location, etc. In this case, TFS Diligence had modified her electronic signature to indicate that she had surrendered, albeit temporarily, to her sister ship, TFS Ingenuity.