A Deep Sleep (Valhalla Book 1) (17 page)

“We got the better of them in the first pass, caught them flat footed.” He allowed a feral grin onto his face. “Took out two battleships with no substantial damage to our own. Then they transited a lot of tonnage, at least three fleets, and tore into the flank. The Aussies held the line as long as they could but they were englobed.” Mondragon didn’t need to tell anyone how that ended. Any force that could englobe an opponent, well, they usually destroyed them to the last. Point defense and countermeasures were just too overtaxed. “I have sent all of the sensor data we have from the battle to date. I am sending gunboat squadrons 22 and 40 to the slip gate. You can use them to cover your thrust through. They’re of the older design, Eagles, so you can’t take them with you. Good luck Athena, make it count.”

Mondragon faded from the screen and Athena let out a short shaky breath. There had been a lot of bad news in that message. First, it sounded like the combined fleet was getting chewed up, being outnumbered almost two-one in hulls and tonnage. Second, Admiral Mondragon had sent two gunboat squadrons to get that message out to her but only a single gunboat had made it to the gate. What’s more, that gunboat had been so shot to pieces it hadn’t really made it, only its message had. The final piece, somewhat connected to the first, was that the Chinese had more than 40% greater fleet tonnage than intelligence reports had suggested they could have. Even the reports that were considered highly conservative didn’t estimate more than 400 effectives.

“The second message?” Athena said firmly, putting considerable effort into keeping her tone level and dead. Daniels said nothing but put the second message on the display.

“Admiral Harper, this is Lieutenant Clarke, captain of Eagle 907. We were part of the 22
nd
Eagle squadron sent by Admiral Mondragon to deliver his orders to you.” Clarke looked even worse than Mondragon had, as did his CIC. The Lieutenant’s left eye was swollen shut, his helmet missing and his pressure suit covered in blood. The blood was probably his. Since Athena had spent a considerable amount of time on Eagles and their predecessors, she knew what the bridge was supposed to look like. In the case of Eagle 907, it looked like the main support beam had fallen from the overhead.

“We broke clear with 18 gunboats and attempted to loop around the system primary to get a clear line on the gate, but they were waiting for us. We ran into a reinforced fleet group, probably waiting to spring a trap on Mondragon’s center. Only five of us got through, all damaged. They kept pounding away at us with railguns until we moved out of range, but only two of us could still use our FTL drives by then. The whole system is hot, Admiral, watch yourself. I hope your force can turn the tide. Admiral Mondragon said that you’re the key now, I hope he’s right. I’d prefer to give you this in person but,” He looked around his CIC with a deep sadness. Athena noticed for the first time that he didn’t look to be more than 20. “we’re running at FTL to get to the gate and I only have one engineer left to run my plant. He says that containment is already failing. Once we make the transit I am going to launch a comm drone to head for your last known position. Then I will FTL to the same location, with my helmsmen dead, I’m the only one left in CIC. The black boxes will launch upon exit, as will our lifeboats. I’ve placed my wounded in them, nobody isn’t wounded at this point. I have fourteen crew left, including myself. Please, Admiral, save my people.” No one had taken the time to tighten up the shot, so the entirety of the small bridge was in full view. At least two crewmen lay motionless under the beam, still at their consoles. A small fire burned in one console, but nobody was tending to it. The few remaining light sources flickered continuously, as if their power conduits were partially severed. Alarms blaring across the bridge made his last words hard to hear.

“Good luck sir.” And then he was gone. His sharp, piercing blue eyes stayed with her though, burned into her vision for a moment after the screen returned to the tactical display. She knew they would return to haunt her dreams. Athena could feel the tension in CIC, how it had gone up significantly. Everyone in DSF-1 knew that men and women, their brothers and sisters, were dying in the other system while they waited. They knew there was a reason, that timing was everything, but they didn’t know why. Now, no doubt, they expected the Admiral’s brilliant plan to save the day, to ride to victory and avenge their fallen comrades. Instead, they would bypass the fight, use their brethren as a decoy while they flitted deeper into enemy space and left them to their fate. Athena wondered if they would understand the strategic significance, or if they would falter and begin to doubt and question. Perhaps even hate their commander.
Perhaps,
she thought,
she would begin to hate herself as well.

“Daniels, get me the Fleet, 1MC.” Athena ordered.

“Yes sir, 1MC.” Daniels worked quickly and efficiently. Athena admired her ability to work so efficiently and coolly, even under such conditions. “All set sir.”

“Attention 1
st
Deep Strike Fleet, this is the Admiral. We have received word and our mission is a go. We will be transiting into the GJ 48 system, where much of the combined fleet of the US Navy and our allies are engaged in a pitched battle with the Chinese Navy. We, however, will not be joining this fight.” Athena saw the shocked expressions around her own CIC and could only imagine what was occurring in the rest of the fleet and even her own ship. “We are bypassing this fight and proceeding deeper into Chinese space. I’m sure many of you are wondering why, why not stand and fight. The reason is because of the true cost of the Battle of Sol. This is a truth that I am not authorized to tell you, but am doing because I can’t imagine asking from you what I must without this knowledge.” Athena ran through the basic outline of the devastating results of the Battle of Sol, a terse five minute bare-bones summary.

“We are tasked with destroying the remaining Chinese industry outside of Sol. Without this action, the Chinese will have an industrial advantage, one we cannot counter. If we neutralize this industry, however, we will have the advantage. Admiral Mondragon is leading the combined force to fight a battle of attrition with the Chinese and give us our opening. Every ship he destroys is one less the Chinese will have for the rest of the war, once we have completed our mission.” Athena allowed a small amount of emotion into her voice and increased the volume. “We are the final blow, we are an avenging force. Not just for the combined fleet, but for all of our brother and sisters who have died in this war. We will rip the heart out of our enemy. Failure is not an option.” Athena closed the link. As she looked around CIC, her heart pounding in her head, she saw each one of her staff turn and give her a nod.
Tripoli
, at least, was with her.

“Ensign Masters, max FTL. Commander Daniels, give the order to the rest of the Fleet, they are to follow us to the gate.” Athena faced forward, rigidly upright in her command chair. She closed her visor with a quick motion of her hand, allowing the cold ship supply air to fill her helmet. In the confines of her small space, she let out her breath and clamped her hands down on the arms of her chair to stop them from shaking. She glanced again at the tactical snapshot from Eagle 907 as it left the system. The bulk of the Chinese forces were away from both slip gates, meaning they should face light opposition, but they had to go now. Any delay would give the Chinese more time to move, more time for change.

“Emergence, Admiral.” Masters reported. “We’re in the groove, aligned for transition.”

“Fleet is forming up, sir.” Johnson chimed in.

“All ships report ready, Admiral.” Daniels report was the last one.

“Very well.” Athena normally would be on
Tripoli
’s flag bridge, commanding the fleet and leaving the running of the ship to her flag captain. Unfortunately, that wasn’t possible because the Navy was short on captains, particularly ones with combat experience. Athena was also the only captain with experience in the new ACG type ships, so she wore two hats on this mission. As far as she was concerned, she preferred it that way. There was something lost if you gave general commands but didn’t personally command a warship in combat.

“Entering now Admiral.” Masters reported again.

Athena locked her eyes on the tactical display, waiting for the momentary lurching of her stomach to fade and the tactical picture to update to the GJ 48 system. As the display flicked to the updated data, Athena saw the tactical picture begin to fill in.

“Getting data now Admiral. Subspace pick-ups indicate heavy weapons exchanges around the primary. Also getting secondary explosion indications. Definitely heavy combat sir.” Johnson reported. “Our other data is patchier, but we are getting signs of combat all across the system. Our path, for the most part, looks clear.”

“Yankee search,
Tripoli
, four full-power sweeps. I want this system mapped. Prepare a full drone spread and push them out towards the primary, comm drone followers at one million kilometer intervals. Set to burst data every five minutes.” Athena snapped out. The drones would form a sensor blanket, extending the range of her subspace and normal sensors, while the followers would act as relays to keep the Fleet apprised. It wouldn’t be real time, but it would be at subspace speeds. This helped to overcome the inherent range limitations of the sensor drone’s subspace comm.

“Yankee search, aye.” Johnson responded, relaying instructions to her support staff.

“Drones are prepping now sir, launch in five seconds.” Heath reported, his hands flying across his console. The crewmen that backed him up in the tactical shack aft of CIC fed the flight profiles to Heath’s console, where he put them together into a single mission.

The lights flickered and
Tripoli
’s powerful active sensors barraged subspace with energy, illuminating the system and allowing her passive sensors to identify contacts that normal sensors hadn’t even detected yet. As the fourth pulse went out, Johnson began to report again.

“We have ships revectoring, high probability of intercept attempt.” Johnson scanned her displays, summarizing quickly in her head. “Looks like two squadrons of corvettes, 17 in total. We’ve also got a partial action group, two
Luyang
-class cruisers, a
Luzhou
-class destroyer, and seven
Jinan
-class frigates.”

“Tactical, what do we know about those ships?” Athena asked.

“The action group got chewed up pretty good in their first encounter with the Australian 17
th
Fleet, so they should be light on ordnance. They fired a full three volleys in that exchange. The Aussies reported heavy damage to one of the
Luyangs
and hits with main battery railguns on all of the destroyers and frigates. As for the gunboats, they haven’t engaged anyone yet, sir, so they are likely fully armed and undamaged.” Heath reported.

“Intercept geometry?”

“The action group is going to have to bleed off a lot of velocity that is almost perpendicular to us, sir.” Heath said. “But the corvettes came through the gate we’re headed for. I think that the gunboats will get a solid run at us, but they won’t be able to get the delta-V they need to stay with us. The action group, well they almost certainly can’t get to us. If they have suffered the damage suggested, it is likely only some of the ships are still capable of full military acceleration.” Heath turned to look at Athena. “I’d say they are the clean-up sir.”

“I’m inclined to agree.” Athena said thoughtfully. The corvettes were designed to bleed the group and expend ordnance. The Chinese corvettes would focus on achieving hits against the ACGs, hoping to wound them. This would force the entire group to reduce their maneuverability to remain a cohesive unit. With the Chinese Action Group bearing down on them, allowing the formation to spread would allow her ships to be picked off one at a time. This would, as a result, allow the corvettes and the action group to link up and attack her fleet as one cohesive force. Then it would be a battle of attrition, a close ranged slugging match. Athena knew that her force would almost certainly be the victors, they were fully stocked and undamaged, but it would be a shadow of itself. No, she had to avoid this confrontation, as much as she wanted to let the fight occur and destroy the Chinese ships. She also had to do it while expending minimal munitions, because she was going to need what she had to fight her way in, and back out, of Chinese space.

“Heath, you and your people work up a quick profile to defend from the corvettes. No offensive missiles. Daniels, instruct all ships to withhold missile fire. They are allowed to engage with railguns only.” Athena considered the tactical display. The Chinese didn’t know about the Armadillos, at least Athena figured they didn’t realize their full capability. Particularly in the dark, she suspected, was a corvette captain. She turned back to the Lieutenant Heath.

“Lieutenant, I have a plan.” Athena smiled at Heath’s ironic eye roll.

“Yes, sir.” His reply a mixture of sarcasm and an underlying tone of confidence. Her plans were often such that people shook their heads in amazement. Typically with a mixture of respect and incredulity, particularly when they worked. That was the result a surprising amount of time.

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“Here they come.” Johnson reported. The Chinese corvettes lanced across the tactical display. They didn’t use their max speed, covering the distance at a somewhat sedate 5x light. As they emerged, Athena’s plan went into action. The fleet had reordered itself as soon as the corvettes went to FTL, arranging into a tight cone, looking almost like an ancient line-ahead formation.
Thunderer
was in the van, with the two Armadillos immediately behind her and spread slightly abeam.
Tripoli
and her sisters followed next, creating the core of the formation in a close triangle. The gunboats trailed, stepping out slightly in the formation. The 36 gunboats were arrayed into a rough circle, forming the base of the cone. They were distributed in groups of three around the circumference, waiting.