The Admiral called the meeting to order. Present were Steve Maynard with his senior Undefeated class ship captain, his Torpedo Ship Wing Commander, the Ascetic Bishop-Commander, and the captain of the Leviathan. The Marine Brigade Landing Group Commanders and Group ship captains, with the exception of Kelly, were all present.
The 3rd ALG Intel Chief briefed the enemy situation. The ops chief briefed the friendly forces. He told the assembled leaders that a cruiser squadron was enroute to reinforce them, but was a week away. They would have to go this one with whatever they had.
The senior Marine Commander gave the Marines status. They had two light brigades and one heavy brigade with armored hover transports, self-propelled medium plasma artillery, armored hover guns, and the long range air/space defense system capable of firing missiles or plasma bursts into planetary high orbits.
The logistics officer briefed the supplies status. As the 3rd ALG hadn’t fought yet, supplies were full. All ships were reporting full weapons capability.
The Admiral asked for a similar report from Steven Maynard. Maynard’s ops chief stood up and ran down their capabilities. “We have six full torpedo ship squadrons and over six thousand torpedoes. We have twelve Undefeated class cutters, and we have the Leviathan. Captain Chang has proposed a unique way to use it in our defense.”
Captain Chang stood. “Ladies and Gentlemen, as you may not know, the Leviathan is a special ship. It’s the size of a fleet battle carrier. It has a clamshell opening system that can swallow a ship the size of this flagship. It has an EMP weapon that can fry the solid-state circuitry of a modern ship and stop it in its tracks, causing it to drift unpowered in space. It also has four tractor beams. It’s this capability, along with the clamshell, that can be of high utility.”
“Two years ago, we stopped a freighter convoy traversing outside our entrance. We brought the four freighters in and unloaded the cargo for inspection. We found undeclared military items. There were 5000 autonomous mines, 2000 stealth mines, and 1000 autonomous missile pods. If you come out with a mine plan, I can lay mines at a prodigious rate with four tractor beams.”
The admiral whispered to his ops chief, then said, “That is wondrous news, Captain. We only have 1000 mines in the entire 3rd ALG. We can give you a detailed mine plan to start to work on and all of our mines. If you give my ops chief the specs on these missile pods, we can work them into the plan, too. Thank you, Captain, you’ve made me feel a lot better.”
The meeting went on for hours as ideas were advanced, seized upon, or discarded. At the end of the meeting, the skeleton of a plan had been decided upon. Now it was up to the ops staff and the Vigilant.
A similar meeting took place on board the K’Rang Fleet flagship. Fleet Commander J’Kalt was not happy with the results of his rehearsals. The fleet was still just a collection of ships, not a cohesive unit. He complimented the two Shadow Force Destroyer captains for their aggressiveness and admonished the other captains to emulate them. He chastised them for being slow and cautious, when their very survival may require they throw caution to the wind and charge headlong at a Human force of larger size.
“We will be going in without the benefit of detailed intelligence on the threat. We have to be ready for any situation. More than likely, we won’t know where the enemy is until we run into them. That is why these drills are so important. We must react faster than the Humans react and overpower them.”
He ran through the drills on the holographic projector one more time, then sent the captains back to practice them again and again until he was satisfied. Eventually, they caught onto what he was trying to do and started to act more like a fleet and less like individual ships in a crowd. J’Kalt slept well that night.
Kelly looked for empty sectors in his survey results chart. He had built a 35-degree cone of space with the apex (the pointy end) starting at the Human entrance to the star cluster and the base ending centered on the K’Rang entrance to the cluster. He had divided the cone by fourths down the long axis and divided the length by 20ths, making 80 sectors. As he finished a sector, it went from clear to red. When there were only a few sectors remaining, Kelly decided they were peripheral and not important. Kelly set course for the 3rd ALG at max speed. He had what the Admiral needed.
Kelly turned his survey results over to the Admiral’s Intel staff and they added magnifying data to the chart. They turned the chart over to the Ops Chief and he gave it to his Mine Warfare Staff Officer. The MWSO drew out avenues of approach and looked for ways to canalize the K’Rang where the Fleet wanted them to go, not where they wanted to go. He planned mine fields at key chokepoints, where adjacent hide locations for torpedo ships or fighters were available, and for autonomous mines to close off pathways behind K’Rang ships. The MWSO then turned his plan over to the Carrier Fighter Wing Commander, who coordinated with the Baratarian leadership and assigned defensive sectors to Fleet and Baratarian units.
The Admiral had the hardest decision to make. What would he do with the Marines? The K’Rang Fleet was composed of all combatant ships. There were no assault landing forces, therefore no need for ground troops. The Admiral made the hard decision to leave his Marines behind. He knew he would have three very angry Colonels in his office shortly.
The Marines and Ascetics had the mission to defend Lafitte City. They would move the population to safe areas outside the city and support them. The Marines’ long- range air/space defense system would be networked with the similar Ascetic system to defend the planet. If the K’Rang should defeat the combined 3rd ALG and Baratarian forces, they would be on their own until the cruiser group arrived.
After hearing the three colonels out, he ordered them to deploy to the planet with their wartime combat loads and carry out their mission. True professionals to the core, they saluted and set off to their respective assault support carriers and the planet’s surface. The 3rd ALG had no Marine general or staff embarked to function as a division commander and HQ, so the decision was made for the three colonels to come under the command of the Bishop-Commander of the Ascetics.
This left a decision on CDR Milton’s idea for how to use the assault landing carriers. Milton pointed out that when the assault landing carriers had their AS-500s unloaded, they were faster and nimbler than a frigate and the bombardment plasma guns were effective against combat ships at medium and close ranges. CDR Milton proposed to use the carriers as ultra heavy attack fighters.
The Admiral could ill afford to lose his assault landing carriers, but the firepower would surely come in handy in this fight if used in the right way. If they could use brown dwarfs as cover and pop out to fire, they might take out a few of the frigates or support ships. He ordered the three captains to concentrate on the rear of the K’Rang formation, especially their support ships and escorts. They were to leave the heavy ships for the rest of the group.
The Marines loaded all their equipment and war supplies on the AS-500s and departed for the planet’s surface. They landed in assembly areas and quickly organized themselves to accomplish their missions. Two battalions of each brigade were assigned to organize the evacuation of the civilians. The remaining battalions built the camp for the evacuees west of the city.
The heavy Marine brigade deployed its two long-range air/space defense systems along the southern ridge. The Ascetic system deployed on the north ridge. The Ascetic light battalions saw to law and order in the city. The Marine heavy battalions and the Ascetic heavy battalion deployed in the wooded high ground to the east of town. All units dug in and fortified their positions.
With the AS-500s and Marines on the planet’s surface, Fleet efforts turned to establishing the mine barriers and ambush positions. The CFW commander assigned specific ambush positions to units and ordered them to reconnoiter and establish routes into and out of these positions, minimizing their exposure to enemy fire. This was especially true for the assault carriers.
The Leviathan was a marvel at placing mines. Its cavernous mouth could hold thousands of mines. Its four tractor beams could precisely place the mines. It placed 2000 mines in one 18-hour day. By the second day, they increased efficiency and doubled the number. By the third, they had completed the mine plan. Now it was up to the K’Rang.
The Admiral worked with the frigates, the carrier, the replenishment ships, and two of the Baratarian captured freighters. The plasma frigates had long-range bombardment guns and defensive missiles. The carrier had twin pods of defensive missiles. The ALG could fire off 200 defensive missiles before the replenishment ships would need to reload them. They carried five reloads. The Admiral worked with the ships to choreograph their actions in support of the fighters, attack craft, and torpedo ships. By the end of the week, he felt he had created a cohesive team.
Admiral Minacci called another commander’s conference to receive readiness appraisals from his commanders. All commanders reported fully ready to accomplish their assigned missions. Minacci congratulated them on their hard work, then dispersed the ships to their assembly areas. Minacci called Kelly in last.
“Kelly I need for you to monitor the enemy for me. Stick to them like glue. I need to know where they are at all times. If they split up, I need to know that. Don’t let them get lost. If we are to survive this, much less win, we need to know what the enemy is up to at all times. If you have a clear opportunity to take out a K’Rang ship, especially their supply ships, do so. This is going to be a campaign over a week or more. They will need to resupply. I want that to be a difficult proposition for them.”
Kelly returned to the Vigilant and started planning his hide spots, overwatch positions, and firing points.
Connie spent two watches plotting out all the potential positions Kelly designated. She correlated them to avenues of approach, choke points, and other criteria the Captain determined. When she was done, she had a plan for bringing the Vigilant into a firing position, firing, and moving under cover to the next position along the avenue of approach. She also had locations where sensor pods would be placed to observe K’Rang movements at forks in their path. When she had it all entered into the navigation computer, she called it a day.
She retired to her quarters to find Alistair lying in his upper bunk. He was wide-awake. She had a question that had been in her head since she found out he was from Archimedes.
“Alistair, could you tell me about what life was like on Archimedes?”
Alistair rolled onto his back and stared at the ceiling. He asked, “Do you really want to know?”
“Yes, I do. Please.”
“How much do you know about the Great Migration?”
She replied, “No more than I read about in history class.”
“The Great Migration was mankind’s first foray into moving beyond Earth and settling ten relatively nearby systems. It was the start of the Galactic Republic. Earth formed ten syndicates that built ten settlement ships each, recruited 100,000 people, and sent them out to the stars with all supplies they would need to create a settlement on these new worlds. One million people were sent out to establish new Earths.”
“The ships were massive, larger than the largest ships today. They were built to carry 10,000 people, their personal belongings, livestock, supplies, and fabricators that could form anything they needed out of raw minerals and scrap. Each ship was filled with suspended animation compartments for all the living things on board. Everyone was supposed to sleep for the year and a few months the voyage was supposed to take.”
“I don’t know how much you already know about my world, but the Archimedes settlement was supposed to be the eighth settlement ship to go to Epsilon Eridani 4. It never got there because the senior astrogator went crazy, put the whole crew into suspended animation, and took the ship off course. He left the Captain a long wandering confession and explanation of why he did it, then spaced himself. The ship powered through space for 30 more years, pilotless, before it sensed a class M planet circling a yellow dwarf very similar to Sol and woke the crew. They were horrified to learn they were 30 light years beyond their intended destination and 41 light years from Earth.”
“The 10,000 settlers considered all options, but in the end had only one available to them. They couldn’t go back. They couldn’t send a rescue message. They were forced to settle the planet and devolve their civilization before their modern capabilities ceased to work.”
“Not everyone was happy with this outcome. There was the Revolt of Desperation early on, by those not willing to stay and wanting to load back on the ship and return to Epsilon Eridani 4. The ship had neither the energy nor life support to sustain the ship for a return voyage. Nonetheless, they overpowered the settlement ship watch and loaded 367 settlers back onto the ship. They were in the process of powering the ship back up when the ship’s captain led an Ascetic commando raid to disable the ship and subdue the rebels. If they had gone it would have doomed the settlement, because most of the livestock were still onboard in suspended animation.”
“That led to the establishment of an autocratic form of government. The appointed settlement chief executive, a former Earth State representative, realized he was not qualified to lead a lone settlement through this new desperate and precarious situation. He selected the ship’s captain as the new leader of the settlement and the captain proclaimed himself Duke Carl I. He hand picked nine village leaders and made them all barons, declaring summary judgment in all matters for himself and his barons.”
“This got the people working toward the common goal of making the settlement a viable community, instead of pining for what would never be. It was a period of innovation, as people tried to devolve the civilization to a sustainable level before the power supplies on their modern equipment died.”
“They built steel mills, coking plants, mining equipment, and foundries. They built basic infrastructure for a 19th century society, even though they didn’t have the population yet to operate them all. All the basic building blocks of an early industrial age society were built, piece by piece, using the molecular fabricators that came with the ship. Cotton gins, rolling mills, flourmills, sawmills, and other light and heavy industry were pieced together from fabricated parts. They concentrated on building things that allowed for further capabilities. Boilermaker fabrication equipment was a priority, as the society’s primary power source would be wood fired steam engines.”
“They had a maximum of 30 years left in the power cells and had to make optimum use of the fabricators before that power ran out. They used the limited sensor capability of the settlement ship to find raw minerals, resources, and the best location for the settlement. They did a pretty good job. The settlement organized itself with the main township, in essence the county seat, in the center of a vast plain with a large river flowing through it. The nine villages were arrayed around it like spokes on a wheel about 200 km away from the county seat. The livestock and seed were distributed to the villages best able to utilize them. Villages along the river valley became farming centers. Villages with fertile grasslands became cattle and horse breeding centers. Villages in the highlands built mills along the creeks and became milling centers. Pigs were distributed equally amongst the villages as they could flourish anywhere. Goats were apportioned to the highland villages where other livestock couldn’t survive. Poultry were apportioned through out the settlement, some even allowed to roam free.
All in all, the early leaders did a pretty good job. They accomplished all their goals before the power ran out. After 30 years the population had quadrupled, and schools up to a university were built and staffed. Guilds were formed to train people to operate the factories, mills, and other specialized functions. Livestock population grew to where they no longer needed to be isolated to just one settlement. Trade flourished between the town and villages, aided by a unified railway system servicing the town and all villages.”
She interrupted him to ask, “Which village were you born in and how were you raised?”
“I was born in Copernicus. We were primarily an agricultural community, which I’m told was a hardscrabble existence initially. There were no horses to use as plow animals because they were all being used as breeding stock. It wasn’t until several years later that geldings became available for sale in the village markets. Of course, by the time I was born, they had developed steam tractors and harvesters to increase farm size and yield.”
“I was the youngest of six children and not very good at farming. My father saw to it that I was accepted by a guild. None of the regular guilds were right for me, but he was determined I would learn a useful trade. He eventually got me accepted into the Assassins Guild.”
Connie sat up and said, “The Assassins Guild? That sounds rather ominous.”
“I guess it does sound rather ominous, but it was more of a military academy than a bunch of cutthroats. We trained on all types of weapons and martial arts. We advanced through the guild levels from novice to apprentice to master. I had just achieved my Master status when we were discovered.”
“85 years after we landed, a survey ship looking for mineral-rich asteroids and new habitable worlds stumbled on us quite by accident. We had no electronic signature and they assumed Archimedes was an uninhabited world. When they first saw our villages, they thought they had discovered a new sentient species. They were a bit disappointed when we answered them back in our heavily accented Galactic Standard. We were quickly assimilated into the 22nd century, which caused any number of problems. Duke Carl IV filed our application to join the Galactic Republic and it caused quite a stir. We were the first second tier world.”
“Our world grew quickly and only a little of the old settlement is still there. It was a large shift from the 19th century to the 22nd and some couldn’t or wouldn’t make the transition. They set aside some of the villages as an enclave of the 19th century for those unable to make the transition. Some people eventually left, but some people moved back in. I guess that in about 50 years the enclave will be empty. It will probably be made into a museum.”
“That’s the college notes version of my planet’s story. Was it what you expected?”
She rolled over in her bunk and said, “How difficult was it for you to make the transition?”
“It wasn’t too difficult for me. The Guild training made me able to quickly adapt to new situations. I always knew the Galactic Republic was out there and that some day we would be discovered. When Fleet Intel found out about the Assassins Guild, they heavily recruited us. They taught us new modern skills and helped us to refine our old skills. The transition was made quite easy for me. I like being a reporting officer, although it does get lonely at times. Fortunately, I have Rojo, my cat, to keep me company.”
He rolled over onto his side and said, “Now if there is nothing more, I’m going to sleep now.”
Connie stood up and stripped out of her coveralls and undergarments before crawling into her lower bunk. Alistair rolled over onto his other side. He lay there alone and did not go to sleep quite as quickly as he thought he would.
Fleet Commander J’Kalt called one last commander’s call before he moved into the star cluster. He looked all of his captains in the eye and told them to remember what they had just practiced. He told them to execute all orders with total commitment. If they hesitated in an ambush situation, they would surely be destroyed. It would be better to go down fighting than to suffer a hollow defeat.
He reminded them what was at stake if the Humans broke out into K’Rang space here between these two main worlds. It could mean splitting the empire and its eventual destruction. He could see in their eyes that they understood the seriousness of their situation, and knew they would all do their duty. He ordered them back to their ships and gave them four hours to prepare their ships and crews for combat. They would enter the star cluster in six hours.
He had requested reinforcements and had been promised at least a cruiser squadron to backstop him here at the entrance to the star cluster. If he was met by a superior force and annihilated, they would have to hold the entrance against a possible Human attack.
He brought the captains to attention and said, ”Long live the Empire!”
They answered in unison, “Long live the Empire!”
Chief Johnson brought Kelly the news that the K’Rang Fleet was moving toward the star cluster from their exercise position behind the nearest main world. Kelly passed that information to the Fleet. Admiral Minacci ordered the Vigilant to move to a position to directly monitor the K’Rangs’ actions and report them to the Fleet. Kelly acknowledged the order and moved out. He gave orders to Chief Johnson to launch sensor pods to all pre-designated positions. Seven sensors left the Vigilant, speeding to overwatch, chokepoints, and decision points in the star cluster.
The Vigilant moved out to the fringe of the star cluster and hid behind a larger than normal brown dwarf. He monitored the K’Rang fleet movement into formation as it approached the entrance to the star cluster. They held off the entrance for an hour then, with the two Shadow Force destroyers in the lead, moved ahead and into the star cluster. Kelly passed this information to the reinforced 3rd ALG. Everyone was in position and as ready as they could be.
Friedrich Debran was being briefed on third quarter profits, something he normally took high interest in, but not today. Something was nagging at the back of his mind. Irritated at not being able to focus on the subject, he threw the briefer out of his office.
Roger Delphant came in as the sacrificial lamb to find out what or who was putting the boss in a sour mood. As he walked in, Debran was staring at a holographic display of the Pleiades. Roger thought he understood.
“Are you worried about your investment, sir?”
Debran looked up, about to throw Delphant out too, when he softened and motioned for him to sit down.
“Damn right I’m worried. I’m into them for 300 million credits and stand to lose it all if the K’Rang get in there and close off the star cluster. I want my own eyes in there, Roger. Get in touch with your Hooligans and have them assist in the defense of the planet. Put them under the control of that admiral if we have to.”
“Yes, Mr. Debran.”
Kelly saw an opportunity to draw first blood. He watched the K’Rang fleet move further into the cluster. As the last of the trailing frigates moved into the cluster, the missile corvette moved up to the entrance. Kelly concluded he must be their communications relay back to the main worlds. Kelly couldn’t let that continue. He gave the K’Rang fleet an hour to get into the first kill box, cut off from retreat, and then he would take this guy out.
Kelly called up the specs on this corvette and realized he had taken on a later model of this type before. In fact, it was an engagement with three of these that got him kicked out of Fighter Force and allowed him to be where he was now.
Connie, sensing Kelly was lost in thought, asked him if something was wrong.
Kelly slipped out of his reverie and said, “See that guy out there? I took three of them out once when I was still in fighters. It saved my carrier, but got me booted out of Fighter Force.”
“How did that happen, sir? I mean we’ve all heard rumors, but none of us know what really happened.”
Kelly checked his sensor feed to see where the lead destroyers were in the cluster, realized he still had about an hour before the first trap sprang, and started his tale.
“We had a general in the Fighter Force that thought she was a modern day Marshall Ney, Napoleon’s cavalry chief. She kept looking up historical battles and drawing all the wrong conclusions. She thought she was being innovative and classical at the same time. No matter what she saw in these old battles, she always set up our operations in the most restrictive manner possible. It was as if she didn’t trust us to think on our own. She had a tendency to trust the technology more than the mind operating it. Have you ever heard of the wall of fire tactic?”
“Yes, sir, we covered it in tactics training in the Academy, but that was obsolete over a decade ago.”
“Well General Bugarov thought of it as her master stroke.”
“Oh, Bugger Off! Everyone on Antares Base has heard of her.”
Kelly frowned, then continued, “She called for a fleet-wide fighter defense exercise and set it up to run near the K’Rang frontier, to demonstrate our capabilities. My carrier and two others were to play the blue force and two carriers were to play the red force. I was a 2nd LT and had the temerity to ask if the wall of fire didn’t make us vulnerable to an enemy that would stack forces against one sector until they overpowered the defense and punched through. I had my head handed to me. She had my squadron commander personally remind me to keep in formation in our mission briefing.”
“Well, that was not to be my lucky day. As we moved out to our squadron defensive position on the backside of the fleet, my damage simulator went offline as if I’d been shot down. I drifted in space with my nav lights blinking and limited maneuver control. I was told to wait for the recovery team to come out and get me. That would have been an hour wait until the combat phase was competed.”
“I tried everything I could think of to get the damage sim to recycle, but nothing worked. I even had Wanda reason with it. That didn’t work, either. That’s when I saw the K’Rang. There were three missile corvettes like our friend over there. All I saw was a star blink on and off as one moved in front of it.”
“Wanda was able to resolve what they were and how far off. We convinced the damage sim to release the ship back to me if they crossed the border, which they did. I took out the three corvettes, and my reward when I got back on board the Bolivar was to be read court martial charges by the General. The Fleet Commander put a stop to that and awarded me the Space Medal for saving his flagship.”
“General Bugarov expelled me from Fighter Force and sent me to Antares in exile. I ran into Captain Hasslerode, and he convinced me that Scout Force might be the place for me. The rest is history.”
“Thank you, sir, that answers a lot of questions.”
The K’Rang fleet moved beyond the distance where they could turn back and support the corvette. Kelly had the navigator make some calculations on what it would take to make an FTL run at the corvette and stop just amidships. The navigator made some quick calculations and announced it could be done at FTL power 1. Kelly instructed him to pass the course, speed and braking point to the helm. The helm acknowledged. Kelly told the gunner to get ready with all guns. The gunner locked all guns forward and said he was ready.
“Helm, execute.”
The K’Rang corvette sensor operators had no warning. One moment their sensors were clear, the next there was a Human Scout ship off their starboard side. Nine guns opened fire at once and blasted a hole clean through the corvette. Kelly could see stars through the gaping hole. They were doomed. No airtight doors could save them. Explosive decompression boiled the blood of the K’Rang crew and killed them almost instantaneously, if not painlessly. As the K’Rang ship was wracked with secondary explosions, Kelly ordered the helm to their next hide position.
Kelly walked back to the galley for fresh coffee and to check with sensors on the status of any other combatants in the vicinity. Chief Johnson reported no contacts other than the K’Rang fleet in the cluster. Kelly had Chief Johnson inform him the second the 3rd ALG sprang the first trap.
Kelly didn’t have long to wait, as the K’Rang fleet was moving faster than expected. The first trap in the cluster was a web of stealth mines across the most direct and widest path. When the leading destroyer lost part of its bow to a mine, the autonomous mines behind the rear of the formation moved out to block off their escape. Torpedo ships swarmed out from behind a brown dwarf on the starboard side of the fleet and let loose with all torpedoes. 56 torpedoes spread out and locked in on the major combatants. As the fleet launched defensive missiles to ward off the torpedoes, an A-76 squadron left the cover of a brown dwarf on the port side of the fleet and launched 144 medium missiles at the penned in K’Rang. Further defensive missiles left the ships and sped out to intercept the incoming missiles. The torpedo ships and A-76s pulled away and flew to land on the Golden Eagle to reload.
Only ten torpedoes and twelve missiles made it through the K’Rang defensive fire to a target. One frigate took two torpedoes amidships and was ripped in two by the combined explosions. A second frigate lost all gun and missile mounts forward of the bridge. A light cruiser lost its stern and drifted in space venting gases, a total loss. Secondary explosions ripped large chunks off the ship and sent them off through the cluster. The immobile lead destroyer received three medium missiles and ceased to exist. The antimatter warheads tore the ship into small pieces. One support ship lost its stern to a medium missile. Four and a half ships destroyed or damaged was not a bad result.
Kelly watched as the destroyer and three remaining cruisers methodically blasted the space in front of them to open a path through the minefield. Slowly and by twos, the K’Rang fleet passed out of the kill zone.
Fleet Commander J’Kalt called for damage reports. Four ships were total losses and one partially damaged, but still underway. He would have to move slower now and fire on every possible hide location. He couldn’t let the Humans dictate his maneuvers. He had to find a way to get out of this tunnel they were leaving open for him and find a clear path. The Shadow Destroyer was picking up terrestrial comms ahead, so there must be a base out there.
As J’Kalt analyzed his current situation, the Shadow Destroyer reported they had come to a dead end. Gravity was increasing and they must turn around. As J’Kalt gave the order to reverse course three assault landing carriers appeared from behind a series of four brown dwarves and opened fire on the four rear guard frigates and support ships. Their plasma guns, designed to send plasma bubbles at hyper velocity speed through a planet’s atmosphere and destroy defensive positions, burned through the hulls of three support ships and a frigate. The burnt husks of the four ships floated off into the gravity well of a brown dwarf and were sent into a slow spiraling orbit. The Human assault landing carriers turned and disappeared into the cluster.
J’Kalt ordered the three remaining rear guard frigates to pursue the carriers, but a squadron of A-76s was waiting for that. They killed two of the frigates and chased the third away. J’Kalt ordered his remaining fleet to move out of the dead end and form up in an all around defense.
The three assault landing carrier commanders were elated. They had just done what tacticians will tell you shouldn’t be done. They had intentionally put their ships into harms way. Normally carriers of any kind never see the enemy directly. Oh, they may see fighters or attack ships, but never main combatants. CDR Milton was the most elated of all. His idea had borne fruit. Not only did they take out four ships on their own, the accompanying attack ships had taken out another two. Mark down four for the gators.
CDR Milton saw an opportunity to take out the two remaining light cruisers. If they could sneak their carriers behind a pair of brown dwarves to one side of the formation, they could get clear shots at the two remaining light cruisers and slip away to their next hide location. He briefed his plan to the other two captains and they were for it.
They would pull back out of sensor range and line up behind the twin brown dwarves and moved forward slowly. Unfortunately, they failed to account for the final rear guard frigate being slow to rejoin the formation. His sensors picked up the Bee as it slipped in behind the dwarves. The frigate lay in wait for the carrier to pop up, relaying this information to the Fleet Commander. Many guns swiveled in that direction.
The Bee dropped down below the dwarf. The Yellow Jacket went high. The Wasp went right. All three carriers fired at the two light cruisers and moved to slip back behind the dwarves. The Yellow Jacket had to pull up to be able to loop back behind the dwarves and presented a perfect target to the K’Rang fleet. A broadside from seven ships hit the Yellow Jacket in the port side AS-500 docks and folded the ship in half. CDR Milton and 700 crewmen died in an instant, as secondary explosions cascaded through the hull. The light cruiser N’Gal exploded five seconds behind it, as six sun-hot plasma balls burned through her hull. The light cruiser G’Bid evaded two plasma balls, but took one on the bow, causing minor structural damage. A fourth plasma ball hit the main deck and burned out an entire missile pod. G’Bid was still combat effective, but at a reduced level.
Admiral Minacci was shocked to hear of the loss of the Yellow Jacket and all its crew. He had never lost anyone under his command before. Now he had lost 700. He considered pulling the two remaining carriers back to his location, but the losses they were inflicting seemed to be worth the risk. He signaled the captains to continue, but not to put their ships in danger unnecessarily.
He pushed the loss of the Yellow Jacket into the back of his mind. He would mourn them later. For now, he had several hundred K’Rang memorials to arrange.
Connie watched the death of the Yellow Jacket and it all hit her at once. This was real. This wasn’t some simulator back on Antares Base, but real combat where real people died. She pushed her feelings back somewhere deep inside to be pulled out and mourned over later. She had just seen 700 crewmen die. Rather then cry over them, she would have to find out what went wrong so that it didn’t happen to others or to the Vigilant.
She asked Kelly, “Sir, what did they do wrong?”
Kelly thought for a moment, then replied, “The K’Rang must have seen their approach, probably that frigate lagging behind the fleet. They were waiting for them to pop out from behind those dwarves. Look how the guns were already swiveled in that direction. The Yellow Jacket went high and had to loop up and over to get back behind cover. If they had gone left, right, or down, they probably would have made it back under cover. The assault landing carriers have thrusters only on the bottom and sides. That loop, and the fact the K’Rang were waiting for them, killed them.”
Fleet Commander J’Kalt watched the debris of the carrier being slowly sucked into the brown dwarves’ gravity. That would make the humans more cautious and not so cavalier. It was time to recon by fire. He instructed all his ships to open fire with energy weapons on any suspicious location that could be used as a hide spot for Human ships. He also ordered an increase in speed.
J’Kalt watched how his ships reacted to their new orders. Every dust cloud, brown dwarf, and asteroid was grazed by energy weapons fire. That would keep the Humans’ heads down.
There was one threat J’Kalt had not experienced, and his lead destroyer was about to run into it. Just around the next bend was a threat with no fear and no head to keep down.