Empire in Crisis (14 page)

With that task out of the way, Logan quickly stepped over
to the Astrogation Station. “What do you need, Admiral,” asked the FAO. 

“Can the 496th stay out of weapons range if they continue
to stay in front of that fleet?” 

“Yessir. In fact they’ll still be out of the enemy’s
detection range by the time the enemy gets to the starbase, but only
just.” 

“And if the 496th lets the enemy see them at that point,
and that fleet starts to pursue, can they make it to the wormhole before the
enemy catches up?” 

This time the FAO shook his head. “No, sir. The enemy fleet
will catch them roughly two thirds of the way to the wormhole.” 

“Can the 496th get to extreme detection range of the
starbase while staying on a path leading to TD38 without the enemy detecting
them first?” That took a bit of computation. Logan watched the FAO’s screens to
make sure he understood what Logan wanted. 

“They can do it if they start that course change soon,
Admiral.” 

And if the enemy then heads for the wormhole from the
starbase, can the cruisers get to the wormhole safely with that longer
lead?” 

“Yes, but it’ll be close. They may end up in beam weapon
range when they decelerate in order to enter the wormhole.” 

“Okay. I want us to get to the TD38 wormhole as fast as
possible. Get this fleet moving, Commander. I’ll take care of the 496th.” 

As he headed back to his Command Station, Logan reviewed
the options available to him. That enemy fleet seemed to be heading for the
starbase. So far they hadn’t detected any Empire ships, because of their
shorter detection range. The question was what would they do once they got to
the starbase. Logan was willing to bet they would then head for the wormhole
leading to the TD38 system, but they might hold position at the starbase for a
while before moving on. And on the remote chance that they might head for a
different wormhole altogether, he really should keep the starbase within
extreme detection range. That, unfortunately, meant that the 496th might come
under enemy fire just as they were trying to enter the wormhole. With the 107th
waiting on the other side to pull off another ambush, there was no way to give
the 496th any support. As he made arrangements to send a text message to
Ortega, he decided what he wanted the 496th to do. 

Ortega sighed with relief as she read Logan’s text message.

[FC to Ortega. The 496th will change heading and head for a
point midway between the starbase and the TD38 wormhole. Hold position there
until you detect enemy ships and then head for a transit of the TD38 wormhole
asap. The 107th will be waiting on the other side. End of message.]

Her Astrogation Officer had informed her of the risks her
squadron would be taking if they continued to let the enemy fleet gain ground
on them. The new Fleet Commander was willing to lose contact with the enemy
fleet in order to give the 496th a decent chance of getting out of this star
system unharmed. She didn’t think the old FC would have done that. 

“Okay, people. We have new orders,” she said as she stepped
over to the Astrogation Officer’s station. 

By the time the 107th had emerged from the other end of the
wormhole and was getting the missile ambush ready, Logan was starting to feel
the fatigue of being awake for over 20 hours straight. He knew that the enemy
fleet, now codenamed Zulu1, had paused for only a few minutes at the starbase
before turning towards the TD38 wormhole. The 496th had been able to send an
FTL message to the wormhole just before the last ship of the 107th entered it.
Logan knew when to expect the 496th to emerge and had a pretty good idea of
when the alien ships would emerge as well. The good news was that there was
time to move the 107th back from the wormhole. The bad news was that there
wasn’t enough time to move it as far back as he would have liked. It was
unlikely that the ambush would cripple or destroy all the enemy ships, and if
the survivors were aggressive, they stood a good chance of catching the 107th
before it reached the next wormhole in the chain leading back to TE33. He had
to inflict as much damage with this ambush as possible, which was why this
ambush would be executed differently from the last one. 

As each alien ship emerged from the wormhole, it would be
highly visible due to the trail of energy particles streaming off its hull. The
circle of warp missiles would see them and would be programmed so that each
emerging ship would be fired upon by the focused energy from 20 missile warhead
detonations. There wasn’t time to deploy the 2,880 missiles needed to attack
all alien ships, and Logan wasn’t prepared to spread his missiles over all 144
enemy ships. The cripples at TE33 had proven that these were tough ships that
might be able to shrug off hits by a dozen missiles or less. No, if he wanted
the alien ships damaged enough to get them off his fleet’s back, then each
target had to have at least 20 missiles assigned to it, which meant there would
be at least 54 ships that would pass through the gauntlet undamaged. Whether
the alien fleet commander would continue to move forward aggressively with
basically only one third of his fleet was a good question. 

“The 496th is coming through!”

Logan jerked with surprise and chagrin at the realization
that he had fallen asleep at his Command Station. He looked at the main display,
which was showing video relayed from recon drones of Ortega’s battlecruisers
with their spectacular energy trails gradually fading away. She would be
receiving instructions as to where her ships should go. If Zulu1 were hot on
her trail, they would be coming through in about five minutes or so. Those five
minutes went fast.  

The enemy surprised him by bringing all 144 ships through
in a single wave in an impressive, tight formation. Empire fleets would not
have attempted that. Entering a wormhole in a tight formation was no guarantee
that the ships would emerge in the same formation. Collisions had happened
within the wormhole itself. His pondering the nuances of wormhole navigation
were quickly replaced by the awe he felt at the sheer magnitude of the tsunami
of nuclear energy surging over the alien fleet from the thousands of warhead
detonations. It didn’t seem possible that any ship could make it through that
gauntlet of destruction and still be able to maneuver and fight, but some
did. 

Now that the ambush had been sprung, there was no longer
any reason for the 107th to maintain its sub-light velocity. The Fleet was
already accelerating to warp speed, as per previously disseminated
instructions, on a heading for the wormhole leading to the next star system in
the path back to TE33. Logan watched the display switch to a tactical
representation based on the warp detection data. Sixty-eight alien ships were
also now accelerating in the same direction. The less than expected number of
damaged ships was disconcerting, although Logan reminded himself that just
because an enemy ship was capable of warp speed didn’t mean that it was
completely undamaged. But regardless of what their actual combat capabilities
were, it would be prudent for him to assume that all sixty-eight could fight.
And if they could all get up to their maximum speed of 4.6C, they would catch
up with the 107th before it reached the next wormhole. There was one chance of
inflicting further damage to them. Logan looked over at his Fleet Tactical
Officer who looked back and nodded. 

“Open fire, FTO,” said Logan. 

“Commencing fire, Admiral!” shouted the clearly excited
officer.

Logan checked the display. An icon with the number 56
appeared and slowed down while the angry red icon of Zulu1 came closer. The
interception would be tricky. The 68 alien ships were gradually gaining speed
but were still travelling at sub-light velocity. In order to avoid being
detected by the enemy ships and then fired on by their beam weapons, the 56
warp missiles were slowing down their retrograde vector using normal
maneuvering engines. Logan knew that another 56 would be launched within
seconds. Ships travelling faster than light could not be damaged by energy
beams from exploding warp missiles. Hitting a target moving that fast was
problematic enough, but even if the missile was firing from dead ahead, as the
first and second waves would be, the effect on the surrounding space from the
warp drive used by the ships would cause the energy beams to lose their
coherence and their ability to penetrate armor. What the 107th was doing now
was attempting to exploit a small window of opportunity to hit those ships
before they reached superlight speed, while also getting close enough for the
warp missiles to aim accurately. The first wave would be able to do it. The
second wave probably would not, but Logan deemed it worth a try even though it
would deplete the remaining stockpiles of warp missiles a little more. The
107th had already used up 61.8% of its missile inventory. 

“Detonation in three…two…one…now!” shouted the FTO.

Without any detectable ripples in the fabric of space that
would have been generated from the missiles’ warp drives, the enemy fleet
wasn’t able to detect them and therefore couldn’t defend against them. All 56
missile warheads detonated. Three more alien ships stopped accelerating. Logan
was dimly aware of a ragged cheer from the Flag Bridge personnel. It was a
small victory, but it was a victory. The second wave did not accomplish similar
results. The remaining 65 ships attained superlight velocity before the second
wave missiles had accurate target locks. Their detonations had no apparent
effect. 

Logan now had another tough decision to make. As long as
the 107th stayed at warp speed, it was safe from attack by the alien fleet, and
the reverse was also true. Energy beams travelled at the speed of light, and if
the ship firing those weapons was travelling faster than light, the ship would
actually outrun the shot from its weapons. In theory, if one ship or fleet was
chasing another at warp speeds, the ship or fleet in front could fire its
weapons backwards, and the ship or fleet doing the chasing might run into the
oncoming energy beam. But aiming accurately at a target moving that fast while
the firing ship was also moving faster than light was a technical problem that
the Empire had not solved. Had the aliens solved it? Logan suspected that he
would find out soon. 

Zulu1 soon overtook the 107th and then passed it. When the
alien fleet didn’t bother to move over to be directly in front of the Empire
ships, Logan knew they weren’t going to be shot at while at warp speed, but
that only meant they’d be shot at when the 107th dropped down to sub-light
velocities near the wormhole. Logan was determined that this would not be like
the first encounter in the Rift all over again. He tried to remember what the
fleet combat teaching materials had said about assaulting a wormhole defended
by a superior force. If he remembered correctly, there was no good way to do
it, but that was against an enemy that also had warp missiles. The captured
cripples did not have any such weapons or the capability to launch them. If he
assumed that these 65 enemy ships were the same kind of ships, and that was a
dangerous assumption to make, then a wormhole assault might just work. He gave
the necessary orders. 

Ninety seconds later, the 107th had dropped down to the
minimum warp speed of 0.1C. The Fleet was already within the aliens’ detection
range, so Logan knew that Zulu1 would see what he was doing. The 107th was now
composed of 56 ships. When the distance between the 107th and wormhole was down
to three million kilometers, ten light seconds, Logan turned to his FTO. 

“Execute.” 

What the alien fleet commander saw on his tactical display
was 56 warp engines travelling at minimal warp speed until they were only half
a million kilometers away. At that point, the ships of Zulu1 went to active
scanning using microwave radar to pinpoint the locations of those 56 ships, with
the accuracy needed, in preparation for firing at them with their beam weapons.
But those 56 sources of warp speed weren’t ships. Logan had ordered that each
ship in the Fleet fire one warp missile, and as soon as that warp missile
engaged its own warp drive, the launching ship shut down its warp drive. What
Zulu1 had tracked over the last few light seconds were missiles acting like
ships, and by going to active radar scanning, the 65 alien ships had also given
away their own precise locations. The warp missiles had a fraction of a second
advantage, and they used it to aim their focusing equipment at their targets
and detonate.  

.  

This time each missile was aimed at a different enemy ship.
The change in tactics was a gamble, but Logan reasoned that if he continued
with the 20-to-1 targeting ratio, his surprise barrage would only affect a
maximum of three enemy ships, and running a gauntlet of sixty-two ships would
be only marginally better than against sixty-five. The 20-to-1 ratio had been
necessary when the alien ships were emerging from the wormhole and moving
across the line-of-sight of the waiting missiles, thereby making it harder to
hit them. His ship’s tactical computer had estimated that half the 20 missiles
would simply miss under those circumstances. Here, the alien ships were almost
stationary, and the warp missiles were moving directly at them with very little
lateral movement. That not only made hitting the ships more likely but it also
meant that a hit was more likely to stay focused on one part of the hull
instead of slashing across a moving hull. The tac computer estimate of
penetrating hits on six to nine enemy ships was worth the gamble in Logan’s
opinion. The problem was that at their current distance of 10 light seconds,
they couldn’t tell which alien ships had received penetrating hits or how badly
damaged they were.