The Terran Fleet Command Saga BoxSet

by Tori Harris

  As Davis spoke, the holographic table highlighted the locations to which he was referring with its customary pulsating green spheres. Although all of the briefing’s remote participants could clearly see the Navajo’s CIC holo table on their view screens, its three-dimensional characteristics were somewhat diminished when viewed on flat, two-dimensional monitors. To compensate for this loss of fidelity, the Navajo’s AI crafted a separate presentation in real-time to accompany Davis’ remarks, displaying it in a separate window at each participant’s location.

  “Initially, we sent a single F-373 to deploy a number of comm beacons in the vicinity of where we believed our two Hunters were lost. During the deployment, the fighter detected the hyperdrive signatures of twenty-four departing enemy ships, followed shortly thereafter by two more. The fighter’s AI was able to determine the departing ships’ direction of flight — which, thankfully, was not towards Earth at the time — leading Admiral Patterson to believe that the Resistance task force might be waiting for additional reinforcements to arrive before commencing their attack.

  “In response, a reconnaissance in force mission was undertaken with two primary objectives. One: to determine what, if any, Resistance forces remained at Location Dagger, and two: to provide Wek Admiral Rugali Naftur the opportunity to make contact with those forces in the hope of convincing their leadership that an attack on Earth was unnecessary. Now I know that second objective sounds like a bit of a long shot, but we have recently learned some things about the admiral that make it seem significantly less far-fetched than we originally thought. I’m sure there will be more details on that subject going forward.

  “For the reconnaissance portion of the mission, TFS Theseus was dispatched to Location Dagger with a contingent of twenty-four F-373 fighter spacecraft. The fighters were ordered to stand by five light hours away at Location Willow, here,” Davis said, pointing to one of the five spheres hovering in space above the holographic table.

  “As I’m sure most of you know, Admiral Naftur was seriously injured immediately before the mission to Location Dagger began. Fortunately, he was still able to briefly participate in a parley with four Resistance cruisers tasked with guarding their original rally point. A fifth, much larger warship, the Baldev, arrived shortly thereafter. Long story short, negotiations quickly broke down and hostilities ensued. At that time, Admiral Patterson dispatched two additional squadrons of Reapers for a total of seventy-two.

  “Admiral Naftur had warned of the possibility that the Baldev was equipped with a gravitic beam weapon of unknown capabilities. During the course of the battle, Theseus discovered that the purpose of the weapon is to prevent an enemy ship from transitioning to hyperspace. Everything we have learned about this ‘grav beam’ weapon is contained in your briefing materials and I highly encourage you to review it in detail if you have not already done so. Fortunately, all of the information we have in hand at the moment indicates that the Baldev was the only ship in the Sajeth Collective inventory equipped with this type of weapon. In the event, however, that we run into more of these weapons in the coming battle, our only option will be to destroy those particular ships as quickly as possible. As you’ve all heard a thousand times, flexibility is the key to naval power. So, as always, be prepared for the Flag to quickly adjust our strategy to counter emerging threats in real-time.

  “Wrapping up the engagement at Location Dagger, the Theseus and her escorting fighters destroyed one of the enemy cruisers and disabled two others. Ultimately, the remaining Resistance defense cruiser, the Hadeon, under Wek Commander Yuli Takkar, elected to join Admiral Naftur and subsequently assisted the Theseus in disabling the battleship Baldev.”

  Although virtually all of the officers attending the briefing had full access to the information being presented by Captain Davis, most of them had not had the opportunity to learn the details of what had been taking place at Location Dagger. After many weeks under the stress of hastily preparing their ships for battle, then waiting in a high state of readiness for the attack they all knew to be inevitable, the news of any sort of victory was welcome indeed. The spontaneous round of applause and words of congratulations for Captain Prescott and all those who had taken part in the battle were immediately recognized by the Navajo’s AI. In response, the vidcon’s audio feed was automatically adjusted to compensate, resulting in a gratifying uproar that sounded almost as if all the participants were gathered in a single, large auditorium.

  Captain Davis had briefly joined in the applause to recognize Terran Fleet Command’s second official combat victory, but now continued with a more somber expression on his face. “While it is absolutely appropriate to celebrate every victory in the defense of our homeworld, we must also acknowledge that such things are rarely achieved without sacrifice. Unfortunately, this battle was no exception, and the losses on our side were significant as well. A total of twenty-eight of our F-373 fighters were destroyed … and I’m sorry to report that all twenty-eight of their brave pilots were killed in action. Another seven fighter spacecraft were damaged. The Theseus herself has also sustained significant damage, but remains mission effective and on station at Location Dagger along with the remaining fighters and the defense cruiser Hadeon.

  “The acting captain of the Hadeon indicated that the Resistance warships at Location Dagger were still expecting two more battleships — sister ships to the Baldev — to arrive at any time. Upon their arrival, both will be ordered, via automated communications device, to depart immediately for Earth without engaging our forces in the immediate area. Whether or not they will comply with that order remains to be seen.

  “The battle at the secondary rally point, Location Crossbow, was much larger in scope and, unfortunately, resulted in significantly greater losses on both sides. Admiral Patterson dispatched seventeen Theseus-class destroyers under the command of Captain Bruce Abrams to engage the main body of the Resistance task force. Once again, Captain Abrams attempted to negotiate an alternative to open hostilities, but his attempts were rejected by the Resistance commander, Commodore Naveen Sarafi. A preliminary reconnaissance conducted during the negotiation process indicated that the enemy task force consisted of fifteen standard cruisers, two defense cruisers of similar configuration to the Hadeon, three destroyers, and six battleships. Based on the cruisers’ known vulnerability to C-Drive-equipped missile attack by the stern, they were targeted during the first round of attacks. As a result, Captain Abrams’ ships destroyed thirteen standard enemy cruisers and disabled two others. One of the two defense cruisers was also disabled. TFC forces suffered no losses up to this point in the battle.

  “Captain Abrams had received information from the Theseus indicating that the battleship they had encountered, the Baldev, had corrected its aft shield vulnerability through the use of supplemental shield emitters installed around the perimeter of its drive section. In spite of these modifications, all Sajeth Collective vessels encountered thus far have shown some vulnerability to kinetic energy penetration rounds. Accordingly, Captain Abrams divided his ships into six groups and closed with the Resistance battleships with the intention of destroying enough emitters to bring down their supplemental aft shields. As they approached, the battleships opened fire with heavy kinetic energy weapons of their own. You will note that this is the first time we have seen weapons of this type aboard Sajeth Collective warships. Commander Takkar of the Hadeon has now confirmed for us that these vessels — Rusalov-class battleships — are of an older design. The projectiles they fired were relatively slow at just under 1.7 percent c, but that’s fast enough at close range. Four of our Theseus-class ships were destroyed outright and three others were heavily damaged. Our undamaged vessels then C-Jumped away to regroup for another attack, at which time two of the three damaged vessels — adrift and without power at the time — were intentionally targeted and destroyed by Resistance forces.”

  There were audible gasps and expressions of anger mixed with disbelief in the background, and several participant
s immediately signaled their desire to ask questions. After a few seconds, Davis raised his hand to quell additional discussion, then continued. “I assure you that we will provide an opportunity to ask questions at the end, but Admiral Patterson has asked us to keep things moving during —”

  At that moment, Captain Davis was distracted by movement in the Navajo’s Combat Information Center that was not visible to the vidcon’s remote attendees. “Ladies and gentlemen, the Chief of Naval Operations,” he announced as Admiral Kevin Patterson took his place beside the holo table.

  “Good morning everyone. I apologize for my being delayed, but after several weeks of waiting for something to happen, the situation is now developing very rapidly. It sounded like Captain Davis was describing our losses at Location Crossbow. I know you have a number of questions, and I will do my best to give you an opportunity to ask them. For the moment, however, I would appreciate your continuing to hold them until the end of the briefing. With any luck, I will be able to anticipate most of what you would like to ask, and avoid having to repeat things as we go.”

  Patterson paused, zooming the holographic table to a view of one of the Theseus-class destroyers immediately before it had been destroyed by the huge shells fired by the enemy battleships.

  “My first question was probably the same as most of yours, and that is: ‘How the hell did this happen?’ Some of you might also wonder why Captain Abrams didn’t simply order an emergency C-Jump immediately after the Rusalov battleships opened fire, so let’s start with that.

  “Before Abrams engaged the battleships, we had already seen Captain Prescott and the Theseus make an initial attack run at the stern of the Baldev back at Location Dagger. The AI projected, and battle experience later confirmed, that it would take concentrated and sustained heavy fire at a single point location to effect a localized field disruption, ultimately leading to a cascading failure of the target’s aft shields. In the course of her battle, Theseus ended up making three such attack runs before finally — with the help of the Hadeon — destroying most of the Baldev’s drive section. There is simply no way for a Theseus-class destroyer, or three of them, for that matter, to put enough energy into those aft shields to cause this type of failure without exposing themselves to an extended period of enemy fire. So, just as many of you are likely to encounter in the coming days, Abrams was in one of those ‘pay me now or pay me later’ situations. He knew that there was a possibility of taking damage or even losing some of his ships, but no other viable strategy had presented itself.

  “We were, of course, hopeful that our new shield systems would prove effective against whatever those battleships could throw our way, but it turns out that there was something about these projectiles that proved more than they could handle. So far, we have no idea whether the problem was related to the shells’ size, shape, composition … we just don’t know yet. The Science and Engineering Directorate is working on discovering the source of the vulnerability, as well as hardening our shield emitters in response to the area denial pods encountered by the Theseus and her fighters at Location Dagger. More on that in a moment.

  “I have one more important item to note about the battle at Location Crossbow. After the attack on the battleships was unsuccessful, Captain Abrams saw that his remaining damaged destroyer was unable to C-Jump, but was attempting to clear the combat area at its best possible speed using its sublight engines. Three Resistance Gresav-class destroyers gave chase, and were so intent on intercepting our ship that they presented him with another opportunity to exploit their aft shield vulnerability. Captain Abrams had the foresight to put two of his ships in flanking positions on either side of the damaged ship — ‘sweetening the deal,’ you might say — and making it less likely that the enemy destroyers would break off their run before they themselves could be attacked from astern.

  “His tactics were sound, his decision-making was swift, and his execution was flawless, resulting in the destruction of two of the enemy task force’s newest and most powerful warships, as well as the rescue of TFS Aeneas. There is much that I don’t know about how the Resistance plans to conduct its attack once they arrive in system. What I do know, however, is that decisive, smart action like this is exactly what it takes to win battles, regardless of the size of your enemy’s fleet or the sophistication of their weapons. Hooyah?”

  “Hooyah!” came the enthusiastic, congratulatory response from the admiral’s remote audience.

  “There is no doubt that Captain Abrams faced a couple of tough calls, but the important thing for us to recognize is that he took action — executing the best plan he could put together quickly using the information he had available at the time. Although his attack on the Rusalov battleships ultimately proved ineffective and costly, I can’t fault him for anything he did. If I had been in his place, I only hope I would have had the fortitude to do the same thing.

  “Any further questions on either portion of the battle at Location Crossbow?” Patterson asked, knowing full well that his previous statement had rendered any additional comments extremely unlikely.

  Marine Rescue Flight 901, Location Dagger

  (3.3 light years from Earth)

  “Marine Rescue Flight niner zero one, Theseus Flight Ops. Clamps released. Expected flight time to the Keturah is zero six minutes,” the controller announced over the secure tactical comm channel used by First Lieutenant Jacks and his squad of fourteen spec-ops Marines.

  “Niner zero one acknowledged,” Jacks replied absently, still heavily engaged in the process of preparing for a mission that had commenced with virtually no warning and at least a couple of hours earlier than he had anticipated.

  Anytime Theseus was engaged in combat operations — and even when she wasn’t, for that matter — at least one of her three Marine squads was on alert and prepared to go into action at a moment’s notice. At this particular moment, however, some of the platoon’s most important equipment was not. With the ship hurrying to conclude its recovery of the fourth damaged F-373, her aft flight deck and hangar bay were in a state of organized chaos. Although she was capable in her own right as a platform for conducting various forms of naval aviation, Theseus was no carrier. Her standard complement of twenty-four Hunter RPSVs (which were surprisingly compact in their stowed configuration), four Gurkha, and two Sherpa ASVs took up very nearly all of her available space.

  This morning’s battle with Resistance forces had reduced the destroyer’s complement of Hunter RPSVs by six, freeing up a significant amount of room in the hangar bay. Shortly thereafter, however, all of that space and more had been taken up by three of the much larger F-373 fighters — with a fourth about to be brought onboard within the next half-hour. As a result, when the order had come down to prepare for an immediate launch and begin providing assistance to the Resistance cruiser Keturah, the status of all four of the Marines’ Gurkha assault shuttles had been listed as “occluded.”

  Upon further investigation, Jacks had found that all four of his ships were so severely boxed in by equipment and other spacecraft that they were not even in a position to take on the required cargo of relief supplies, let alone be relocated to the flight apron for launch. Even after an impassioned plea to the on-duty spacecraft director, it seemed that there was simply nothing that could be done to quickly extricate the heavily armed and armored Gurkhas within the required launch window specified by the XO. So, rather than waste any additional time, not to mention his own credibility, by taking up the matter with Commander Reynolds, Jacks had acquiesced and instead had the two Sherpas loaded and prepped for immediate launch.

  “Listen up, Marines,” he said, having just finished compiling enough information to provide at least some semblance of an adequate mission brief. “I’ll take the hit for getting our rides stuck in the hangar bay. I assure you that it won’t happen again. In any event, we don’t have a lot of time, so let’s brief this up with a standard estimate of the situation.”

  With only two Sherpas at their disposal a
nd much of the shuttles’ cargo capacity being taken up by relief supplies, Jacks had room for only a single squad of Marines on the mission. As a result, his fourteen troops were divided into two sections of seven aboard each spacecraft. Fortunately, their “universal” combat EVA suits were designed with small unit tactics in mind, and their ability to communicate and seamlessly share information with each other as well as with friendly forces in the area amounted to a significant force multiplier. Now, as Lieutenant Jacks ran through his standard, METT-TC briefing, supporting visual aids and textual information were displayed within the fields of view of each member of his squad.

  “Mission: the primary mission is to stabilize the situation aboard the Keturah to the maximum extent possible within the next six zero minutes. Even though we’re classified as a ‘rescue’ mission, that is not our objective at the moment. Using the information Commander Takkar provided, we will approach the cruiser’s four primary external access points at these locations.”

  As Jacks spoke, a model of the Resistance BD cruiser appeared to hover in space before each of his troops, rotating and zooming in on each area of interest.

  “The security system protecting each of these access points will issue a series of ‘challenge’ codes when you arrive in front of the door. Your suit’s AI has all of the data it needs to provide the correct response. Once that happens, you should have access not only to the door itself, but also a fair amount of general information regarding the status of that section of the ship. Unfortunately, the system is smart enough to recognize whether someone is actually prepared to enter once it opens the door, so it requires that you not only have the key, but also that you are in the immediate vicinity of the airlock before it will grant access. The access routine will kick off when you are within about three meters of the door. After that, the first thing your AI will do is attempt to determine if the section of the ship beyond the airlock is still pressurized. If so, proceed and attempt to deliver a portion of our relief supplies. If not, move on to the next access point. Again, we are not equipped to conduct rescue operations at this time, so regardless of what you find inside that ship, right now we are just here to help stabilize the situation and prevent further loss of life. Understood?”