A Deep Sleep (Valhalla Book 1) (12 page)

“Sir,” Heath spoke up first. “
Azov
has not taken any damage from missiles and we have had limited success with our own railguns. We’ve also expended more than half of the missiles in our ready magazine.”

“
Azov
is showing no outward signs of combat degradation sir. She has fired approximately a half of her own missile load, but that is substantially larger than our own.” Johnson reported.

“Gunboats?” Athena asked.

“We still have ten gunboats from squadron 1-3, plus the three survivors from squadron 4. They are currently decelerating from their run on
Kirov
. They’ll be available in two minutes sir.” Johnson responded. “Course change!”

“
Azov
and the civvies are bending their course, we’re going to overshoot.” Johnson continued.

“Maneuvering, stay with them.” Athena called out, checking the mission clock. “We’ve got to keep them on this evasive line for another few seconds.”

“Trying sir, they’ve got the advantage here, we came in oblique and they are countering us. We’ll get real close in a minute here but then they’ll blow past us and move clear.” Masters said, still focusing hard on his controls, trying to bring
Tripoli
around to match the Russian’s turn.

“Captian, need a hand?” Captain Weklar broke in over the comm.
Fort Worth
emerged from subspace nearly directly in front of the convoy, unleashing a salvo of six Mk-92Bs directly at the three civvies, two per ship. Since the ships had almost no point defenses, the missiles closed almost unopposed. Taking a page from Captain Unger’s playbook, Weklar had set the missiles to close to almost impact before detonating.
Sevmorput
was the first to die. With her better engines, she had surged ahead of the other two and now she paid the price. The first missile actually impacted the hull as it detonated, vaporizing most of the forward section, The second missile detonated just forward of her starboard drives, causing a violent explosion and inducing a sidespin in the now-dead aft section.

Athena watched in shock as the
Cormoran
pulled up in a maneuver that must have taken a decade off the ship’s useful life, pulling g-forces that she doubted the inertial dampeners were even capable of handling. The image blurred as the big ship executed the maneuver.

“Is
Cormoran
breaking up?” Athena snapped out.

“One moment sir.” Johnson conferred for a couple seconds with her back room. “No sir, she has ejected cargo boxes…”

“Holy shit.” Somebody whispered loudly.
Cormoran
’s tactic worked, the missiles detonated among the cargo boxes instead of closing with the big ship. She had ejected over a third of her cargo, creating a wall that any missile would be confused by.

“The tanker wasn’t so lucky.” Heath commented. Athena switched her focus to the tanker, just as one of
Fort Worth
’s missiles detonated close aboard and touched off the fuel she had been carrying. The rapidly expanding plasma caught the other missile and fried it prior to detonation, adding yet another piece of debris.

“
Azov
is breaking off, sir.” Johnson didn’t sound like she believed what she was saying. Athena wasn’t sure she did either. While she couldn’t say the battle was going well,
Fort Worth
springing the trap still didn’t mean it was lost. Then again, with two of three of the ships she was escorting gone, her captain probably saw little benefit. Ore carriers weren’t the reason for this mission, the destroyed
Sevmorput
was.

“She’s energizing.” Johnson said, referring to the cruiser’s FTL field.

“All railguns, fire, missiles to rapid-fire. Try and slow her down!” Athena ordered. She flipped her comm on to
Fort Worth
. “Weklar,
Azov
is running, let’s try and stop her.”

“On it.” He responded quickly.

Both ships fired on the retreating cruiser.
Tripoli
’s firing angle was still poor, trying to turn and close on the cruiser.
Fort Worth
had a better angle, but her guns were not large enough to pose serious danger to the cruiser. Additionally, her missile salvos were too small to have a significant chance of stopping a subspace transition in time.
Azov
continued to absorb the damage for another 10 seconds before she disappeared in the brief flash of subdued light.

“Damn.” Athena swore quietly.

“
Tripoli
, this is
Fort Worth
. Almost had her. We’re closing on the
Cormoran
now.” Weklar called over the comm, clearly disappointed as well.

“Sir,
Cormoran
is broadcasting a surrender.” Daniels reported.

“Put me through and put it up on the speakers.” Athena replied.

“…surrender. Please do not shoot. I repeat, American ships, we surrender. Please do not kill us.” The voice came across in very lightly-accented English, the Russian speaker was clearly trained in the language of his enemy.

“
Cormoran
, you are ordered to heave to and cut thrust. Engage breaking thrusters and reduce speed to 0.10C. You will be boarded. If you send any message, emit any signals or make any attempt at a sensor sweep, you will be immediately neutralized. Do you understand?” Athena commanded.

“Yes, yes, we understand. Who are you?” The Russian captain, or Athena presumed it was the captain, pressed.

“You’re only chance at getting home to see your family and home world. Now comply with my orders.” She said icily.

“Understood.” He replied, slightly less fear in his voice and a small hint of annoyance. He didn’t seem to like being denied information.

“Detach Hornets to cover her from astern, match velocity and maintain 1,000 km. Make sure they still have some working 92Bs. They are to shoot if my orders are violated. Then send another two gunboats to do a board and seizure.” Athena ordered.

“Yes sir.” Daniels sent the commands from her station. “Sending Hornets 1 and 3 to cover from astern, they’ve got three each. Hornets 11 and 20 were first to respond for boarding duty.”

“Advise them to use extreme caution on their approach.” Athena said. “And connect me with the marine commander of both gunboats, same line.”

“Connection established.” Daniels cued.

“Hornet boarding parties, this is
Tripoli
Actual. Report status.”

“
Tripoli
actual, Sergeant Hamill aboard Hornet 20. I have a six-man boarding party, fully armored.”

“
Tripoli
Actual, Corporal Bryce aboard Hornet 11, also with a six-man armored boarding party.”

“The civilian ship you are about to board is an ore carrier and she has kindly offered to surrender. Conditions aboard that ship are unknown, so keep both eyes open. She pulled off some pretty impressive maneuvering to avoid a couple of nukes with her name on them, so I don’t expect the crew is completely composed of your average civvies. Lethal force is authorized without being fired upon. Don’t shoot on sight, but this is not to be treated as a simple boarding operation.” Athena told the two marines.

“We’ll be ready sir, no carelessness on this op sir.” Hamill responded immediately.

“I’ll keep my Marines in line sir. We’ll secure this ship for you sir.” Bryce responded a second behind Hamill, as his rank dictated he should.

“Hamill, I’m sure you don’t need to be told but I’ll tell you anyway, you are in charge of this op. I expect reports as soon as practicable.”

“Understood sir.” She said. “Both parties will be linked into the Tactical Awareness Network (TAN) so that you can track our progress if required.”

“Good luck Marines.
Tripoli
Actual out.”

Athena had the TAN link put up onto the forward view screen, 12 separate screens. Under each screen was the identifier for each marine. In the center was Sgt. Hamill and Cpl. Bryce’s windows, slightly larger than the rest. Those with little else to do,
Tripoli
’s bridge crew watched the five-minute operation. The Marines swept through the ship quickly but efficiently.
Cormoran
was a large ship, but her habitable areas were much smaller. A long narrow tube ran along the spine of the ship, connecting the forward habitation module with the aft engineering spaces. Sgt. Bryce led his team into engineering, securing the main compartments and detaining the two engineers they found there. Lt. Hamill and her team entered by the personnel hatch at the aft end of the habitation module. They moved forward quickly, securing the majority of the crew in the galley. It seemed that they had been told to assemble there, since there was no obvious signs of a meal in progress and several looked as though they had been elsewhere on the ship. When Hamill reached the bridge, they found just four individuals there.

“Ship secure sir.” Hamill reported over the TAN.

“Excellent work, Lieutenant. The Hornets will send over engineering teams to evaluate the ship. Please have an escort waiting for them. I would also like you to find a location to secure the crew aboard the ship. We are still in enemy space and I am not taking the time to shuttle them over here. NavInt and the top brass can decide what to do with them.”

“Yes sir.” Hamill turned to address the bridge crew.

While Athena awaited word that
Cormoran
’s crew had been secured, she tracked the outbound shuttle as it carried engineers from
Tripoli
over to the captured ship. The Hornet engineers were more than adequate to inspect the Russian systems, but they couldn’t remain aboard as a prize crew since the gunboats had small enough crews as it was. Athena could spare the men from
Tripoli
until friendly space. At least that was the assumption. The shuttle would not be returning, instead serving as the emergency escape from the Russian ore carrier in the event that the ship had to be abandoned. They were still behind enemy lines and the civillian life pods were dumb affairs, not capable of controlled flight. If those engineers and other crew had to leave, they would be able to rendezvous with one of the gunboats or
Tripoli
herself in a shuttle, it had the speed to maneuver with the larger ships.

“Sir, the crew of the
Cormoran
are secured in the mess. The ship is ours and the engineers are boarding now.” Sgt. Hamill’s voice came over her comm.

“Excellent work Sergeant. I’d like you to get the marine detachment I sent over briefed and then get yourself back aboard your gunboat.”

“Yes sir. I’ll see to it immediately.” She replied smartly.

Athena commed Daniels on the bridge.

“”Daniels, arrange for Hornets 1 and 3 to be re-armed, priority docking. Any issues they have, if they can be fixed in the next hour, do it.” She paused for a moment before continuing. “Also get the other twelve gunboats ready to dock as soon as 1 and 3 are clear. We’re departing 30 minutes after 1 and 3 are clear. Make sure they understand that.” Athena finished with a tone that brooked no argument.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Two hours and 31 minutes later,
Tripoli
and
Fort Worth
began thrusting towards the slip gate through which she had arrived.
Tripoli
carried on her hull twelve gunboats in their carriers. Athena glanced at the three pulsing dots on the display, two blue and one a hatched green. The two blue icons represented Hornets 1 and 3, while the hatched green was the
Cormoran
, the hatching signifying her status as a captured non-combatant. Athena had decided to leave two gunboats behind to travel with the captured ship back to friendly space. The lack of an FTL drive meant that it would be a long trip, nearly three months, but the capture of a partially filled carrier should be worth the time and temporary loss of two gunboats. She had also transferred enough supplies to the captured ship for the gunboats to make the long journey.
Tripoli’s
engineers had even made up a jury-rigged docking collar in the space where the ejected containers had been. This meant that one of the gunboats could dock with the ship and give the crew a short break. It wasn’t perfect, but it made her feel comfortable with leaving them behind and not just blowing up the ship.

“FTL distortion forming.” Ensign Masters reported. “Coming up to speed…stabilizing at 90C sir.”

“Very well. Time to slip gate?” Athena asked Ensign Conway.

“Just over 7 and a half hours sir.” He replied.

“Master Chief Brown,” Athena called over the comm to DC I. “How is my hull?”

“Captain, the COB is forward with the DC parties, fixing your hull sir.” Came the reply. “I can connect you with him.” Athena waited for a moment.

“Captain, Brown here.” The COB’s voice was slightly distorted, but otherwise clear.

“How’s it going up there chief?”