Kelly Blake 3: Where the Stars Are Few and Far Between (40 page)

* * * * *

Admiral Chang received a request from Jotil Lenkva to attach a battalion of Marines to the units occupying the K’Rang capital. He politely turned it down because the K’Rang did not know of their alliance and her presence. He intended to keep the Angaerry presence a surprise until he sprang them on the K’Rang Grand Armada.

Jotil Lenkva liked that. She wanted to be the surprise to ruin the K’Rang commander’s day. She felt the need to avenge two decades of K’Rang dominance over her people. She would enjoy springing the trap.

She already enjoyed working with the battle fleet commanders. She found their patience with her questions to be very tactful and their answers to be quite helpful, if not a trifle too diplomatic at times. She took no offense and realized they were becoming accustomed to her as she was with them.

She took a shuttle to Admiral Thomas’ carrier to see carrier operations at first hand. She was given the opportunity to sit in an A-76 and an F-53. She found them quite roomy, until she stood next to the pilot of one of them, and felt so small. She wondered how he fit in the cockpit. She watched the launch of a squadron of F-53's from the Space Boss’ office and was impressed with how quickly they were able to depart the ship.

She liked these fighters, and would recommend the Angaerry look into building fighters, attack ships, and carriers. She was beginning to see how useful and flexible they were and how they carried the fight to the enemy and saved one’s own ships.

Her next visit was to flight operations, where she saw the scheduling and deconfliction necessary for carrier flight operations. She next stopped at the CIC. Here, she saw how flight was integrated into the total capabilities of the fleet. The sensor and weapon range of every ship, fighter and attack ship was plotted in the large holographic viewer occupying the center of the room. She walked around the various positions and saw sensors, offensive missile control, defensive missile control, gunnery, flight ops, and close in defensive system control. She was even more impressed. Admiral Thomas led her up to her Flag spaces and introduced Jotil Lenkva to her staff, which did everything she saw below, but for the fleet.

When she left to return to her flagship, she was incredibly impressed with how these Humans were organized and the ways she could improve her fleet. She vowed to implement these improvements when she returned to Angaerry space. The eve of a battle was no time to try and implement a new tactic or doctrine. Integrating these useful carriers was as avant garde as she planned to get.

* * * * *

The next day, the Elders prepared for action. The Armada from the Eridanus sector would arrive sometime that day. Elder J’Kol, the former commander, had a mental calculation of when they would arrive. At the appointed time, he waited to hear news of his old command. The day came and went and nothing was heard from the Armada. Elder J’Kol began to worry, then dismissed it. Either K’Rel had decided to drop out of FTL far from the system, to avoid defeat at the hands of the superior Human fleets, or he was waiting for the Grand Armada to arrive. Either way, it was another day before they would know.

J’Gon was still smarting from the arrogance of the Human general the day before. He wanted to see the Human defeated and demoralized for the way he had addressed them. He had insulted them and that could not be let to stand.

“Damn these Humans for destroying their FTL communications hubs! Even after we defeat them, it will be years before we can reestablish contact with all the worlds.”

G’Tol and J’Kol kept their thoughts to themselves, but they knew the Humans would not be so easy to defeat. It would be best to have an alternate plan in case plan A was not successful.

* * * * *

Working as he was for the Angaerry, Kelly was able to scout where he wished, within tactical limits. He decided to track along the expected path of the K’Rang fleet. He sped up to FTL power 7 and had his sensor section report all FTL power indications. He tried to see if he could locate the incoming fleet from its FTL signature. After several hours at max speed, he turned toward G’Durin and raced back. It was just an experiment and all of them don’t work.

He made a wide circle around G’Durin, searching for the Armada from the Eridanus sector. They were expected today and had yet to make an appearance. The scouts trailing the Eridanus Armada had entered an area of space where the combined FTL bubbles of over 500 ships effectively jammed long-range FTL communications; the news of their joining up with the Grand Armada would not reach Admiral Chang before battle was joined.

Without this knowledge, Kelly suspected they had dropped out of FTL far from the K’Rang home system, but he was unable to locate them. He was especially careful to search outward from the Angaerry fleet, to make sure they were not surprised. He drew a blank again. Today just wasn’t Kelly’s day.

* * * * *

Mary Chen walked the perimeter of her brigade’s area of responsibility. Occasional sniper rounds had made Colonel Maxwell pull back the perimeter from right on the avenue circling the government center to behind the elaborate hedges. They put portable barriers and towers in place, rather than using engineer support to build berms. Colonel Maxwell did not wish to be accused of unnecessary damage to a cultural site after the war was over and the lawyers jumped in. Mary bounded from cover to cover, inspecting the fighting positions and strong points.

The sniping had been bad at first, but a concerted effort to assault sniper positions and do maximum damage to the house involved made the homeowners reluctant to patriotically offer their homes up as battlegrounds. The K’Rang were a race of warriors, but some were less warlike than others. The sight of two-meter diameter disruptor fire holes in the sides of houses – not to mention similar damage inside – was enough to discourage all but the most virulently hostile from offering their homes as sniper nests.

Mary worked her way from company position to company position, checking to see if more could be done to keep the Marines safe. She was pretty impressed with what had been accomplished in so short a time.

She returned to the brigade command post as Maxwell was working on a patrol schedule for the heavy battalion. He wanted to expand their area of influence by sending platoon-sized motorized patrols through the surrounding neighborhoods. Mary’s deputy was already working up a patrol plan when she arrived. She looked over his shoulder, liked what she saw, and worked on items she observed during her perimeter walk. When finished, her deputy brought it over for her approval before taking it to the commander. Mary made some minor modifications and sent him to brief Maxwell. She hoped all days here on G’Durin would be this easy. She could handle anything the K’Rang could throw at them here on the ground; she just hoped the fleet could handle anything they threw at them in space.

* * * * *

Shadow Force Commander (Baron) G’Rof prepared his commanders for the upcoming battle. He named the succession of command in case he or others in the list were killed. He had subordinate commanders do likewise. As large as the Grand Armada was, a breakdown in command would be fatal. He announced his standing order for every ship to fire their entire offensive missile load on command, reload quickly, and be prepared to fire again. G’Rof chose a position on the far side of the home system, beyond the expected location of the Taurus Fleet. He would quickly kill them and turn to attack the Pisces Fleet. He thought the time they spent practicing rapid reload would serve them well in this situation. He reinforced to each commander to open up the formation as they came out of FTL, to provide clear paths for the missiles of the inner ships.

His orders reinforced, he closed communications and waited as the final hours, minutes, and seconds counted down. In his hands was the future of the K’Rang Empire. His actions today would lead to triumph or destruction for the Empire. Long live the Empire!

* * * * *

Humans, K’Rang and Angaerry all over K’Rang space sweated out the next few hours. No one had ever seen this much combat power concentrated in one place before. Two fleets – one allied, one K’Rang – would meet to decide the future of this segment of this arm of the Milky Way Galaxy. Would it be the K’Rang tyranny or the mostly benevolent rule of the Galactic Republic and the Angaerry that would triumph? All would be decided in the 17 hours between the coming dawn on G’Durin and sunset. Wills were updated. Messages to loved ones were composed and sent off. Prayers were said. Creatures of three species prepared themselves for battle as best they knew how.

 
Chapter Twenty-One
 

 Admiral Levi had put his fleet on battle stations an hour before and still the K’Rang Fleet had yet to arrive. He was wondering if he did it out of caution or the jitters. He had half his A-76's flying along with his fighter CAP to provide an early punch if the K’Rang dropped right on top of them.

Admiral Levi had a gut feeling that the Grand Armada was going to drop out of FTL on his side of the home system. It was what he would do. As a result, he calculated from their start point to G’Durin, and moved his combined fleet another 10 million km to give him a little more reaction time. He damned himself for thinking it, but he wished the K’Rang would hurry up.

* * * * *

The lead navigator on the K’Rang flagship gave Baron G’Rof the 30-second warning and sent the brake time message to all ships. Baron G’Rof brought all ships to full combat readiness and waited as the clock ticked down. The time ticked over and the K’Rang Grand Armada exploded into space near the home system. The released energy as over 500 FTL engines came offline threw out a crown of red, orange, and yellow lightning bolts and plasma around the fleet, lighting up the darkness. This had always been theorized, but the number of FTL ships necessary to achieve the plasma discharge had never been assembled in one spot before.

After a few seconds, the plasma blinding his sensors cleared and the 2nd Combined Fleet stood out against the background stars not 700 million km away. G’Rof ordered all ships to target the Human fleet and in seconds thousands of long-range missiles were flying through space on their way.

Simultaneously, small attack craft from the Human fleet were speeding the K’Rang fleet’s way. Seconds behind them, offensive missiles from the Human Fleet were heading, like fingers of death, toward G’Rof’s fleet. As they approached the defensive missile engagement range, missiles were launched to counter the incoming missiles. The Human small attack craft came into range and fired hundreds of ship killer missiles.

The K’Rang drew first blood when a light cruiser took two missiles amidships and broke into five pieces. A Human frigate and a support ship were the next ships to explode from multiple missile impacts. Human jammers and other countermeasures misdirected a large number of the K’Rang missiles. Fighters and defensive missiles also destroyed large numbers, but the leakers were taking a toll. Two missiles each hit three destroyers from the 7th Cruiser Battle Group, breaking them apart and sending them spinning across space.

Baron G’Rof, looking across the shoulder of one of his sensor operators, saw large groups of small attack ships approaching from two directions. He warned his commanders and reinforced their requirement to reload as rapidly as possible.

It was now the K’Rang’s turn to feel the impact of Human missiles. Two heavy cruisers in the arrowhead were hit by multiple missiles and reduced to scrap metal. A destroyer and support ship went up in one giant explosion as missiles hit them in the middle of reloading. A destroyer took three missiles to its bow and pinwheeled through the formation, smashing into two cruisers and a support ship. A frigate took a heavy missile to its bow and it peeled the ship back to just under the bridge.

The two fleets exchanged missiles again like two punch-drunk fighters slugging it out in the late rounds of a fight. The Human fleet had the advantage with its longer-range fighters and attack craft, but the K’Rang could launch more missiles. G’Rof, speeding toward the Human fleet, needed to close another 2,000,000km to engage with his drones.

The Human small attack craft were agile and hard to hit with gun or missile. A few ships had some luck using their close in defensive system, if the attack ships were foolish enough to fly in range. A few score of them had been destroyed this way.

G’Rof started losing ships to the two other groups of medium and heavy attack ships. He counted his losses as fewer than 70 ships after two exchanges and he still had four reloads left. Human losses were 85 ships, mostly capital ships. He closed the distance so he could use his drones against the carriers.

* * * * *

Admiral Chang ordered all carriers to send their A-76's against the K’Rang fleet, concentrating on the cruisers. He also ordered the other fleet’s ring ships to admit the heavy and medium attack ships. He ordered the 1st Combined Fleet and Angaerry Fleet forward to come into missile engagement range.

His massed A-76's were taking a toll on the Grand Armada, but the K’Rang advantage in offensive missiles was taking its toll on Admiral Levi’s command. He counted 78 2nd Combined Fleet ships destroyed or severely damaged and out of action. That was half of his escorts, but he still had all of his carriers. There was a momentary lull as the K’Rang reloaded. Now was the time for the A-76's to get in there and do some damage.

Admiral Chang took note of losses to his A-76's as he sent them back out again. Of 72 squadrons, 50% were missing one or more attack ships. Three squadrons were at 50% strength. One squadron was combat-ineffective, with only two ships remaining. He had lost a total of 102 A-76's, of which only 17 pilots had been rescued and returned to their carriers. He hoped more could be rescued, once the battle was over.

* * * * *

Commander Jerry McGill of the 17th Attack Squadron, flying off the Gorbachev, lined up his dozen A-76's on the K’Rang fleet and prepared to attack the leading cruisers. Missiles came up their way and they executed a series of evasive maneuvers – combined with countermeasures – and were in firing range of their targets. Commander McGill passed the leading cruisers to his pilots and took one heavy cruiser deeper in the formation as his own. He’d always wanted to take out a flagship and this heavy cruiser fit the profile. He closed within range and launched all 12 missiles.