A Deep Sleep (Valhalla Book 1) (33 page)

Mondragon’s praise touched her deeply. From most she’d assume that it was just empty words, but she knew that he didn’t deliver such praise lightly. “Thank you sir. We’d be honored.”

“Good, and thank you.” Mondragon inclined his head slightly. He brought up a three-dimensional display of the DP Draconis system and zoomed in on the system’s second planet. The planet was marginally in the outer edge of the habitable zone and suffered from large region arctic regions. Tundra and ice covered well over a third of the planet. Only the thin band at the equator was a temperate haven. Of course, all the valuable ores were closer to the poles and so that is where several mining colonies existed. Athena was focused, however, on the planet’s orbitals.

“The battlestation in DP Draconis is still active, though Russian Admiral Rogov did manage to put a missile in tight and destroy some of her systems. He also eliminated most of the smaller orbital defenses, at least we think so. We only have the data that  the cruiser
Bystryy
was able to collect before she exited the system. The captain lingered at the slip gate long enough to collect the results of the battle while sending a Russian tender ahead to call for reinforcements. Admiral Rogov and his battleship
Iron Fist
were destroyed in the encounter. It is also believed that the governor turned dictator controls the system’s force of patrol craft and fighters, though it is unclear how many pilots and crew also rebelled.”

“What was left in system for patrol craft? Anything they didn’t pull into the navy must be in pretty rough shape.” Athena said thoughtfully.

“That much is true. We think they have two or three superannuated frigates and one destroyer that, while somewhat modern, lacks an FTL drive. The real problem is that they captured a
Kresta
-class cruiser in the repair docks. She was undergoing a major refit after one of our hunter-killer gunboat-frigate squadrons gutted her drives. Intelligence put her only two months from being completed before the system rebelled.” Mondragon said grimly.

“So she’s likely to be operating in system then.” Athena concluded.

“Not necessarily. We got word of a black market shipment of some engines that are a match for a
Kresta
, out of one of the ships that was gutted in the Battle of Sol. Apparently some enterprising group towed her to a point out in space away from normal traffic lanes and proceeded to cut out what was salvageable. We think members of the crew probably were complicit in it.”

“Did we intercept the shipment?” Ava asked.

“No.” Mondragon said as if he tasted something sour. “Force Recon raided the ship, but the engines had already left. A quarantine sweep didn’t turn them up. We suspect they may have made it through to DP Draconis. The rest of the ship was scuttled. That was one week ago.”

“There’s that at least.” Ava grumbled.

“And it’s about a month’s worth of work, in a real rush, to install a complete engine arrangement in a cruiser.” Athena realized now why they were being allowed direct action.

“Exactly. The politicians decided that a rogue system was one thing but a rogue system with a cruiser, now they’re panicking.” Mondragon said with disdain.

“At least they’re letting us take some action, sir.” Ava offered, though the disdain was in her tone as well.

“I suppose I should take what I can get.” Mondragon agreed. “Anyway, the mission goes like this, Admiral Harper, you will take DSF-1 to DP Draconis and secure control of the system. If the cruiser has put to space, you are to eliminate her as a priority. If the cruiser is still in her berth, Captain Kim and a small team will insert onto the orbital shipyard and try to prevent the ship from being completed and launched. Minimal casualties are to be obtained, nothing unnecessary like venting the whole station. Also, try and do as little damage as practicable to the works themselves. After the orbitals are secure, a relief force will move in to hold the system against any further nefarious actions.”

“What about the planet sir?” Captain Kim asked.

“For now, the politicians haven’t decided, so we wait.”

“That battlestation is a tall order, sir. Assuming it has its full complement of missiles and fighters, I don’t know that my reformed fleet can take them. Since Aegis departed and took their Armadillos and
Thunderer
with them, I’m a little under gunned. The cruiser and four destroyers are all well-staffed, but they just aren’t custom builds for the mission. It will be a costly mission.” Athena cautioned.

“That’s why you’re taking
Intrepid
, two more destroyers, and
Philippine Sea
.” Mondragon said with a grin. “What do you think, Admiral, will a fleet carrier, two destroyers, and another cruiser tip the balance?”

“Well,” Athena drew out the word. “I’d prefer a battleship or two, but I guess that’ll do it.”

“I thought it might. I couldn’t quite shake a battleship free for you from the border with China, political BS again.” Mondragon turned to Captain Kim. “And so you don’t feel left out, you get your own ride. I did manage to shake a
Specter
-class stealth transport free for you. You’ll have the place to yourself, so it’ll be a bit roomy, but I think you’ll manage.”

“Oh yes sir, I think we’ll manage.” Captain Kim’s expression was something akin to that look a kid gets in a candy store. The
Specter
-class stealth transports were tailor-made for delivering troops without everyone knowing about it. Small and fast, the transports could carry upwards of two-hundred Marines. When configured for a space-insertion they also carried twenty combat shuttle and ten gunships for local support in the absence of dedicated fighter escorts. All of the craft were, of course, stealthed themselves. They had proven themselves quite effective during the war, even though they were a pre-war design. Athena knew from briefing notes that the transports had been responsible for capturing numerous freighters, tenders, and stations without ever being seen until they were already onboard. That was enough to ruin anyone’s day.

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“So sir, have you thought about what you plan to do next?” Daniels asked nonchalantly.

“I think I’ll review the latest intel reports before I brief the captain. I also need to look over the jackets of the captains that have just been added to my command…” Athena trailed off as her mind turned to the tasks ahead.

“I apologize sir, I should have qualified that. With the war over and most of the cleaning-up operations also over, what are your plans? Will you stay in the service or have you considered going onto the civilian side?” Daniels said, moving quickly to verbally cut-off Athena’s developing freight train of thought.

“Oh sorry, Becky, I was thinking in the short term. A tactician’s curse, I fear. Always the short game, not the long.” Athena pursed her lips. “I don’t think I’ve really given it much thought. To be honest, I think I’ve been avoiding it. The Navy has been my life. I’m not sure what I’d do without it, but I’m not sure there is a future in it either. Have you made plans?”

“Yes sir. I’m getting done next year. I turned down an offer to be XO on
Guadalcanal
when I took the promotion to captain and the position as your aide. I always knew I didn’t want to stay in the service forever. The war was an important cause and I never would have left while it was still on but now…I have a masters in media design, so I think I’ll try to get into television or movie production. There are bound to be a ton of them about the war, so I should be able to pull double duty as advisor and do some of the work if I play my cards right.”

“Sounds like you have a plan. That’s good.” Athena smiled at her. “But the service is going to miss you. And of course, so am I. You’ve been a great asset to me these past two years.”

“Thank you sir, that really means a lot.” Daniels choked a little as she accepted the praise.

“I’m sure you’ll do great at whatever you get into.” Athena switched topics rapidly as the lift deposited them near the shuttle bay for their return to
Tripoli
. “But for now, let’s attend to the mission at hand. The future will have to be deal with when it arrives.”

“Of course sir.” Daniels smiled and followed Athena out of the lift. “Whatever was I thinking?”

DP Draconis

Draconis II: Czar’s Compound

Czar Pavel Yakimenko was enjoying himself immensely. He had been the system governor of DP Draconis for nearly twenty years before becoming its sole authority. No longer did he have to heed the wishes of Moscow or anyone else, only his own needs. Pavel surveyed his opulent bedroom and all it contained. Silver platers of half-eaten delicacies covered the tables. Expensive liquors were also scattered about, with several of them having been spilt in the previous night’s raucous activities.

Speaking of which.
Pavel thought with a smile. He turned his gaze to the two women in his bed. One was raven-haired, a lithe form that was quite pale, and quite young. Young enough to be his daughter perhaps, but not his granddaughter. The second was older, but not much. She had an unruly shock of shorter red hair and a beach-tanned form to match. He had chosen them from all of the women and girls brought before him by those who would curry his favor. He couldn’t disagree with their tactics. He employed the same types of coercion on those he manipulated to maintain power for a simple reason, it worked.

An obnoxious and rapid knocking interrupted his thoughts. Pavel’s temper flared white hot.

“I am not to be disturbed!” He boomed at the door, rising from the bed and storming towards the door. He snatched up an auto-pistol from the nightstand as he did so. The two women recoiled as they were abruptly awoken. They clung to the sheets and each other, each wearing a terrified expression on their faces. Pavel ignored them and flung open the door. Outside, a nervous young man stood, shaking visibly even as Pavel opened the door.

“S-s-s-sir!” The man snapped into a rigid posture, but not a military one. “The command post sent me.”

“Did they have a reason for sending you, beyond disturbing me!” Pavel berated him harshly.

“Yes, Czar, sir.” The man stammered out. “Approaching…approaching ships in the system.”

“What?!” Pavel yelled even louder, this time his voice was more shock than anger. It was also an octave higher, but that didn’t alleviate the young man’s terror. Pavel fought back the panic in his mind. “I will be there shortly. Go!”

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We’ve got one destroyer, heading away. She’s accelerating, but slowly.” Johnson said, confused for a moment. She typed in a few commands and then snorted and shook her head. “It’s a
Novik
-class destroyer, sir. From these readings, she’s pushing her drive to at least 130% to make that kind of speed.”

“Has she been upgraded?” Athena asked quickly.

“I don’t think so sir. I’ve got all the tell-tale radiation signs of an overstressed, not to mention ancient, drive unit. Not only has she not been upgraded, I think she’s past-due on some overhauls as well.” Johnson said with what might have been pity in her voice.

Athena could understand that, to a point. The
Novik
s were ancient, having served the Russian Navy starting more than seventy years earlier. She had been under the impression they’d all been expended as targets.

“Put two stealthed drones on their tail, close follow but full stealth protocols.” Athena ordered.

“Aye sir.” Johnson responded. “The initial spread of drones is sending back good data as well sir.”

“Could be a trap sir.” Heath agreed with her unspoken conclusion.

“Yeah.” Athena sighed. “But it might not be. The drones should at least keep an eye on her.”

“Fleet is all through the gate and formed up sir.” Daniels reported.

“Let’s get moving then.” Athena ordered. “Inform
Shadow
that they are to remain behind the formation until we confirm the cruiser’s location.”

As soon as they had come through the gate, Athena had launched a spread of drones to blanket the system. They would give her the eyes she needed to find the Russian cruiser, if it had even left the dock.

“Broadcast the surrender offer, all channels and high power. I want to make sure everyone hears it in this system.” Athena added.

“Yes sir, one minute to broadcast.” Daniels responded crisply.

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“Getting good eyes on the space-dock sir.” Johnson finally reported.

About time
. Athena thought, though she had known it would take hours for the drones to reach into the system and send back their FTL-bursts.

“I’ve got one cruiser, still inside the truss-work. She looks pretty closed up, but scans indicate she isn’t powered up, at least her fusion plant is cold. The fission reactors appear to be at full power. Engineering advises that she could be in fusion pre-start.” Johnson added as the advisement from engineering came through her earpiece.

“Captain Daniels, inform
Shadow
that they have a go. Tell Captain Kim, Good Hunting.” Athena instructed.

Now then
, She thought, turning to the holo.
Let’s deal with that battlestation.

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Captain Kim looked about the cramped bridge of USS
Shadow
and couldn’t help but feel useless. She was the ranking officer aboard, but she still felt like she wasn’t helpful. She had no naval training and could only look at the various displays and feel like the dumb grunt so many thought Marines were. She’d rather be down in one of the launch bays with her Marines. At least then she knew what she was doing, could feel confident in her actions.

“Sir, we’re approaching the station.” The captain, Lieutenant Leyson, informed her. She was sitting just two feet to her front, in the center of the bridge.

“Thank you, Lieutenant.” Ava nodded and unstrapped from her seat. “I’m going to head down to the launch bay now.”

“Of course sir. Good luck.”

Ava nodded again and headed for the launch bay.
Time to suit up and get down to what I know.

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Forty minutes later,
Shadow
bumped gently up against the hull of the space dock. The bump was so subtle that the inertial dampeners completely killed it, both for the station and the small stealth transport. Captain Kim only saw the results, her suit tied into the external cameras to see the transport latch itself to the hull. Special clamps with a fast acting glue bonded the ship to the hull of the station. The light above the door turned green.

“Let’s go, keep it tight and move quick. I want all of you checking those corners. No rookie mistakes.” Sergeant Anabelle Hawkes yelled at first squad. “Get ready to move!”

“Good to go, Sergeant. Good luck.” The crew chief told her.

“Thank you, Chief.” Sergeant Hawkes switched to her suit AI only. “Activate the breaching protocol.”

“Activating breaching protocol.” The annoyingly sultry electronic voice informed her. A shiver ran through the deck as the explosively-triggered plasma jets did their work. A moment after, with the station’s hull still cooling, a small ram pushed the cut section inward. “Activating cooling.” The AI announced as liquid nitrogen rapidly cooled the edges. Even before the nitrogen had all been dispensed, four grenades were launched from single shot launchers into the compartment. The first two were flash-bangs and the other two were high explosive. The flash-bangs detonated first, then an instant later the high explosives detonated.

“Go.” Sergeant Hawkes ordered.

The first fire team burst through the hatch and into the station. Captain Kim waited her turn, having located herself an appropriate distance back from the leading elements. She desperately wanted to lead from the front, but her order precluded such an assignment. She knew it was unnecessarily risky and irresponsible, but she couldn’t help but feel like she was sending good men to die while she remained safe. At least as safe as one could be in an active combat zone. She busied herself with listening to the reports as her fire teams secured the intersections and swept the compartments they encountered.

“Resistance is non-existent. Two technicians have been detained and trussed in a storage room. We are proceeding towards the control room.” Sergeant Hawkes reported crisply. Captain Kim hadn’t worked with the sergeant long, she was a recent addition to the platoon, but so far Ava was thoroughly impressed. The sergeant got things done.

“The platoon is all aboard. One fire team on drag, collect the rest as we go. Lieutenant Ramirez, you’ve got drag duty.” Ava ordered, hefting her rifle and advancing down the secured corridor. She still kept her rifle up and ready. Marines got killed when they got careless, veteran troops were no exception.

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Lieutenant Commander Bill Sampson watched the plot, missiles inbound and approaching his tiny fighter. Indeed, the missiles were nearly the size of his fighter, carrying multiple nuclear warheads designed to gut large ships. Usually, Bill’s fighter carried shorter-ranged weapons with similar intent. Today, he carried a different payload. Today, he hunted the missiles.

In all his time flying off
Intrepid
, Bill had never been tasked with anti-missile duty. Typically only a small subset of the fighter-bombers were, most used in their offensive role instead, leaving missile defense to
Intrepid
and her attending escorts. Admiral Harper apparently had other plans. As far as Bill could tell, the entire complement of fighter-bombers were outfitted in missile defense and they were positioned well ahead of the fleet. They were not as far out as they would be on a standard attack run, but still well beyond their friendly point-defense. Not that any point-defense was friendly once you were flying through it. Bill repressed a shiver. Too many bad memories there. He’d been in some very hairy battles in this war, often coming through with a number of kills. He even had a battleship painted on his fighter. Still, nothing had ever seemed quite as terrifying as being caught in your own point defense fire.

“Approaching execution point. Arm all weapons. Transfer control to AI.” Commander Brady instructed, though all the pilots heard his reluctance. Pilots hated giving control to the AI.

Bill tapped on his screen, yielding his fighter to computer control. The closure rate was too fast for human targeting. When attacking a large target, like a ship, human intuition and instinct played a role in the engagement. When shooting bullets with smaller bullets, it was all math. As he reached the execution point, his fighter subtly adjusted its thrusters. If Bill hadn’t known better he would have sworn that the fighter had just thumbed its nose at him. He’d been on the right heading, or near enough for good target locks. He let the thought slip from his mind as the launch sequence began. Each of the fighters carried four-packs of sprint missiles, one on each of the six hard points. The short-range missiles were typically used for shipboard launchers, one of the last lines of defense before the missiles reached detonation range.
Intrepid’s
fighters had just put hundreds of them into space and the kills racked up quickly.

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“Results on your board now sir. Looks like the fighter-bombers got to the missiles before they separated. Two leakers.” Johnson reported happily.

“Thank you Lieutenant.” Athena smiled back at her. Athena had suspected that the tactic would work. That and she was unwilling to sacrifice any more lives than absolutely necessary. The war was over and she would expend as much ordinance as she needed to save the lives of a few of her people. The accountants could quibble over the cost later.

“All ships are to prepare to fire. Recall the fighters, tell them job well done.”

“Aye sir.”

Two minutes later, DSF-1 fired more than two hundred missiles into space in two successive waves.

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Czar Yakimenko walked quickly to the command center, the guards stiffening and presenting arms as he swept past without acknowledging their presence. He also failed to register the disdain on their face as he passed.

“Report.” He commanded as he strode into the room.

“Sir.” Colonel, formerly Captain, Sukin said curtly. Sukin had proven to be one of Pavel’s most fervent supporters. Pavel had to admit, the man was effective, despite his lieutenant’s failure to capture the Russian fleet in orbit last year. He tended to be more argumentative than Pavel would like, but he was also often correct. That tended to infuriate Pavel as well. Still, effective was effective. “Our pickets have detected a large American task force entering the system.”

“We must destroy them, at once.” Pavel declared loudly.

“Yes sir.” Sukin said sourly. “I’m afraid that this task force is substantially larger than our available assets.”

“I think you underestimate the potential of our battlestation.” Pavel said haughtily. He didn’t see several military men behind him roll their eyes at that statement.

“While powerful, sir.” Sukin began carefully. “It is effectively a fixed installation. The American task force is mobile and can engage it at favorable angles and times. Or it can avoid the station altogether and raid out outer systems, much as several other ships have already done.”