Kelly Blake 3: Where the Stars Are Few and Far Between

Where The Stars Are Few And Far Between

 Copyright 2012, Rodney L. Smith

 Third book in the Kelly Blake Series

 Other books in the series

 
Scout Force
 

First Command

 Cover Photo Courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/spaceimages/details.php?id=PIA14101

 This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of author’s imagination or are used fictionally. Any resemblance to actual events, or locales, or persons living or dead is entirely coincidental.

 
Dedication
 

 
I dedicate this book to my swimming pool. Many a plot twist was ironed

out in its cool, relaxing waters.

• Title Page
  
• Chapter One
  
• Chapter Two
  
• Chapter Three
  
• Chapter Four
  
• Chapter Five
  
• Chapter Six
  
• Chapter Seven
  
• Chapter Eight
  
• Chapter Nine
  
• Chapter Ten
  
• Chapter Eleven
  
• Chapter Twelve
  
• Chapter Thirteen
  
• Chapter Fourteen
  
• Chapter Fifteen
  
• Chapter Sixteen
  
• Chapter Seventeen
  
• Chapter Eighteen
  
• Chapter Nineteen
  
• Chapter Twenty
  
• Chapter Twenty-One
  
• Chapter Twenty-Two
  
• Chapter Twenty-Three
  

 
Chapter One
 

 Captain Hal Howard of the Galactic Republic Ship Waterloo was commodore of Task Force 121, patrolling the K‘Rang frontier in the Eridanus sector. He intently watched the task force plot on the large monitor in the Combat Information Center.

He saw his battle cruiser in the center, surrounded by three destroyers. Five frigates deployed in vertical arrowhead formation, parallel to the frontier on his port side. Two frigates followed his three support ships. The only thing missing was the scout ship that should have been assigned to his task force. After the Fleet budget reductions four years ago, half the scout ships had been mothballed on Glenn and there just weren’t enough to support all the Fleets, task forces, and groups. TF 121 had drawn the short straw.

Hal felt a swell of pride in his compact, but lethal task force. He had been patrolling for four months and hadn’t seen so much as a K’Rang freighter. It was only another three weeks until he would be relieved by TF 231 and could head in for an extended period in the yards. His ships would get the new Yestepkin-designed disruptor cannons and be even more lethal. He inwardly preened, thinking there might even be a star in his future.

His battle cruiser was also supposed to be fitted with a hanger to be able to carry two MP-22 multi-purpose ships. They would provide almost the capabilities of the previous generation scout ships, and then he wouldn’t feel so blind. There were nebulae and high iron content asteroid fields that seriously blanked or reduced his sensor capability.

One of his destroyers, the Juan Lopez, had two MP-17s embarked, but its sensors were no better than those on the larger ships. In fact, the nebula strand ahead to port was just such a blind spot. He normally directed his TF away from these areas, but he held course this time so as to not set a predictable pattern.

* * * * *

Sitting in that same nebula strand, Shadow Leader G’Motta eagerly watched the Human fleet approach at FTL power 3 on his slightly static-filled display. It would be only a few minutes more until he fired the first shots in Operation J’Tan. He waited to see if they would turn outward or remain on course. His answer came quickly when the Humans made no movement away from the frontier, but came right where he wanted them. His targeting computers plotted out the optimum time to fire and intercept targets moving so fast the human eye could not see them.

He activated his laser communications ring to all ships of his waiting task force and gave the order to fire. Within seconds, 800 anti-ship FTL missiles launched, left the nebula, and homed on the Human fleet. The missiles were the latest K’Rang models. These smaller FTL-capable missiles with larger warheads left the launchers on a preprogrammed course, each missile or group of missiles assigned to a specific enemy ship. The first missiles would disrupt the FTL bubbles, dropping the ships to sub-light speed. The remaining missiles autonomously homed on the ship or automatically retargeted if the ship was destroyed before they got to it. The larger ships, like the Human cruiser, had over a hundred missiles programmed to attack it, the supply ships only a few dozen. As the missiles left the nebula and started active homing on their targets, the K’Rang fleet’s combat ships powered out to open fire with their main guns, as soon as the Human ships were wrenched out of FTL by powerful antimatter explosions. G’Motta expected this to be a short engagement.

* * * * *

Alarms rang out in the Human battlecruiser’s CIC. A rating shouted, “Missiles inbound, dead ahead, hundreds of them.”

Captain Howard instantly called out, “Signal to all ships, forward defensive fire now!” as an icy hand grabbed his insides.

Years of training, simulations, and drills paid off as he and his task force instinctively reacted. He called a formation course change as defensive FTL missile after missile left their launchers to intercept the inbound missiles. The course correction put them broadsides to the inbound missiles, increased the distance those missiles had to travel, and allowed all guns to bear on the missiles – and whoever may have fired them from inside the nebula, if his ships dropped out of FTL.

Captain Howard maintained a calm, sure demeanor, although inwardly he was aware of how slim their chances were against this likely superior force. His monitor showed over 600 missiles inbound and more were being resolved by the sensors system. That was many more than his task force could fire. He mentally did the math as TF 121’s defensive missiles bore in on the inbound missiles, and he knew that his missiles would not be enough. He wished he had turned away from the nebula. It would have given him a few more precious seconds to act.

The frigate Destiny was the first casualty as two missiles impacted sequentially; the first antimatter warhead dropped the Destiny out of FTL, and the second obliterated the ship and its 250 crewmen. Captain Howard pushed aside the sense of loss and concentrated on saving the remainder of his task force, as other ships had their FTL bubbles disrupted from missile strikes and dropped out of FTL. It would be a few minutes before they would be able to regenerate their FTL bubbles. As the K’Rang missiles continued homing on the Human fleet through the boiling clouds of exploding defensive missiles intercepting them, Howard ordered the gunners on the sub-light ships to target the leaders. They did pretty well on the remaining K’Rang missiles, but there were still too many coming at them. He ordered the frigates to open up with their close in defensive weapons if they were forced out of FTL – three were. The Gatling-style rail guns fired thousands of steel pellets into the paths of the inbound missiles.

Coming out of the nebula behind the missiles were seventeen K’Rang warships powering to intercept the task force: three heavy cruisers, four light cruisers, six destroyers and four frigates. Captain Howard ordered all ships to drop out of FTL, come to 0.9
c,
and fire main guns and offensive missiles at the advancing K’Rang Fleet. He needed to give those slowed frigates time to be FTL capable again.

He prepared a contact report saying a superior K’Rang force had fired on them, and transmitted to Fleet HQ that they were engaging and requesting any available reinforcements. As the report went out, the destroyer Jefferson exploded and broke in half. He breathed a sigh of relief as all other ships reported FTL-capable. It was time to place more distance between them, the K’Rang fleet and all those missiles. He ordered the task force to come to course 95-degrees Mark 15, and come to FTL power 4.

The task force made a hard turn to the right, rose 15 degrees and accelerated to FTL power 4, but the K’Rang missiles exceeded their acceleration and continued overtaking them. Two rear guard frigates were intercepted, yanked out of FTL by the force of the antimatter charges, and destroyed. At least the K’Rang guns were unable to fire on them at FTL. Captain Howard ordered the remaining frigates to form a stacked double row behind the task force and prepare to fire their rear close in defensive systems if they had to drop out of FTL.

Captain Howard ordered all ships to prepare to fire their last offensive missiles and ordered a turn toward an uninhabited star system nearby. It was a desperate measure, but Hal was desperate. He was quickly running out of tricks. He ordered his small force to make a close pass to a double Jupiter-sized gas giant, just as a K’Rang missile caught up with one of his rear guard frigates and destroyed its FTL bubble, then another missile shredded the frigate from the fantail to the bridge. Howard ordered a close pass to the planet’s gassy atmosphere and a decrease to 0.9
c
before making a close orbit and coming out the other side. He ordered all ships to prepare to fire their remaining load of offensive missiles on contact with the enemy, execute a 90-degree turn to port and increase speed to FTL power 4, the top speed of their support ships. Maybe they could escape and survive this after all.

The task force came around the far side of the gas giant with their stabilizers straining at the centrifugal forces of a close orbit, but they no longer had missiles chasing them. As they rounded the equator to face the way they came, they found the K’Rang task force commander had guessed their intent and was arrayed broadside in their path, firing all guns as they had targets on which to bear.

* * * * *

The Human task force’s offensive systems were destroyed before they had a chance to fire more than half their offensive missiles. The K’Rang defensive missiles took out the task force’s puny missile strike, as they continued to fire energy blast after energy blast into the Human ships. The outgunned and outmatched Human task force returned fire to minor effect, but there was too much firepower for them to escape. The battle was finally decided when three K’Rang light cruisers, guns blazing, appeared in orbit behind them. Shadow Leader G’Motta was surprised the entire battle took less than an hour. He thought the Humans would last at least twice that long.

G’Motta sent the success code phrase and scanned further into Human space, looking for more targets. Damage reports came in, but he still had fifteen fully combat ready ships in his fleet. G’Motta was exhilarated at having completed his first fleet engagement with only minor damage. He surveyed the burning and broken hulks of the Human fleet and thought to himself, “If the rest of the Humans are like this, this will be a short war.”

He reviewed his orders and briefing on this campaign: Destroy all enemy combatants in sector, bypass all Human worlds, establish a picket line at the outer boundary of the Human sector to provide early warning of Human reinforcements, destroy all reinforcements within your ability.

G’Motta took one last look at the burning and broken hulls of his vanquished foe, then ordered the fleet to resupply missiles from the supply ships, move to its picket line position, and to be alert to any Human ships in sector. The bulk of the K’Rang invasion fleet would be entering the sector by the time he had his picket line established.

* * * * *

After three years, Lieutenant Commander Kelly Blake strode quite comfortably through the soaring marble halls of the Galactic Republic Senate Office Building. Senators called him by his first name. Staffers bought him coffee. Lobbyists bought him an infrequent lunch. He was definitely an insider.

True, his uncle was majority leader in the Senate, but Kelly had forged his own strong reputation as the go-to guy for Defense and Intelligence matters. He was connected, always returned messages and calls, and answered all questions in the same polite, professional manner, whether they were outrageously stupid or not. If he didn’t know the answer to a question, he could find who did know and followed through to ensure congressional and senate questions were answered thoroughly, promptly and to the senator's or staffer’s satisfaction.

Kelly was also good at getting Fleet issues higher priority in the legislature in these tight budget times. He had a list of senior staffers he could call on to get their bosses energized on legislation favorable to Fleet. He could almost as easily get legislation quashed that was unfavorable to Fleet.

A good part of Kelly’s success was in the Fleet tours he arranged for senators, representatives, and their staffs. He orchestrated orientation visits to battle fleets going through work-ups in nearby first-tier systems. He’d have the delegation flown in on a Scout Force ship through the transporter gates (all the while being indoctrinated on Scout Force capabilities and successes), transferred onto the Battle Fleet flagship for fleet familiarization, and ferried to an Assault Landing Group for further familiarization and return to Earth. There were few people that would not be impressed by a battle fleet in formation travelling between the stars, or a brigade of Marines in combat gear, formed up on the well deck of an Assault Landing Ship.