Flagship (A Captain's Crucible #1) (15 page)

"How thick is the hull in that area?"

"Seven meters, sir."

Robert shook his head. "Only a single meter separating us from a hull breach. Continue firing starboard thrusters. I want our fore facing away from that thing. How long until the repair swarm can patch the damage?"

"They'll have the Whittle layer reapplied in an hour." The Whittle layer was a thin segment of reinforced metal elevated a meter above the actual hull; it was meant to reduce the damage caused by micrometeors. "But the actual hole in the hull? Something like that will take at least a full standard day of 3D printing to repair. Probably closer to thirty-six hours."

If an actual hull breach had occurred, the small machines would have sealed the outside first and then worked inward, reattaching any wiring and other conduits along the way, then 3D-printing superheated metal into the missing portions of the hull frame.

Robert studied the tactical display. He was tempted to try launching a nuke at the laser array, but decided the enemy would simply sacrifice one of their fighters to intercept it.

"Lieutenant Commander Albright, are you watching this?" Robert said.

"I am, sir," a hologram of the space wing commander appeared in the middle of the bridge, between the circle of inward facing stations.

"I hear you have some upgraded fighters for me," Robert told the man.

"I do indeed," Albright returned.

"Prepare to scramble both squadrons," Robert said. "I want that laser array and its fighter escort taken out. I'll instruct the task unit to launch a bunch of mortars. I want your fighters to dive in behind them and cut power. Use them for cover. With luck, the enemy won't realize their presence until too late."

"Both squadrons are ready to scramble, Commander." Albright's hologram said. "Waiting on the order."

"Miko, have the fleet launch a round of mortars at the lead laser segment. Fire when ready."

"Firing," Miko returned.

The yellow dots representing the mortars appeared on the 3D display.

"Albright, scramble fighters," Robert said.

"Scrambling fighters." Albright's hologram blinked out.

Seconds later sixteen blue dots representing two squadrons of fighters appeared on the display. The
Callaway's
full complement of Avengers moved behind the different yellow dots, matching the trajectory and speed of the associated mortars, and cut power.

The
Aurelia, Dagger
, and
Linea
had a single squadron of Avengers each aboard, but Robert decided to keep those in reserve for the moment. Meanwhile the frigate,
Maelstrom
, had no fighters, nor did the
Selene
,
Grimm
, or
Marley
.

"I'm detecting a burst of highly directional gamma radiation from the dart ship in group one," Ensign Lewis said. "It's aimed at our hull wound. Radiation levels are elevated in cargo bay six behind it."

"How far is the radiation penetrating?"

Lewis paused. "It seems contained to that specific area."

"Maxwell, evacuate any service personnel from the cargo bay six area and have them report to sick bay."

"Evacuating eight personnel," Maxwell said.

"And helm, get our nose turned away from the enemy!"

"Working on it," the helmsman replied.

Robert had forgotten about Scott, who had remained motionless the whole time beside him. The man's eyes were defocused, consumed by whatever it was he was seeing on his contact lens aReal.

"Captain Scott," Robert said. "You are relieved. Petty Officer, please escort this useless mound of flesh from the bridge."

Petty Officer Connolly, the master-at-arms guarding the inner bridge door, stepped forward and extended a hand toward Scott.

"Where should I put him?" the MA asked.

That was a good question.

The
Callaway
was operating under Condition Zebra, which ensured the hatches and scuttles that subdivided the cruiser into many smaller airtight compartments were sealed, preventing the entire ship from explosively decompressing in a breach scenario. Scott would be able to return to his quarters, but Connolly would have to override every hatch along the way, leaving the bridge unguarded in the meantime. The MA would also have to inform the Damage Control spaces of his planned route beforehand.

"Put him in the passageway," Robert said. "Out of my sight."

Scott numbly allowed the MA to lead him from the bridge.

Good riddance.

"Thermal buildup!" Ensign Lewis announced. She looked up. "They're firing their main laser array again. It's digging into our forward starboard side."

"Helm, keep turning," Robert said. "I want an unblemished hull section facing them the next time they fire."

After ten seconds the pulse dissipated.

"Damage report?"

"As before, the laser micro-compensated for our rotation, concentrating on the same spot." Miko looked up. "Either they got lucky, or they knew where to fire."

"What do you mean?" Robert asked.

"They struck our Vipers. Two laser turrets were melted out of existence, and a feedback loop shorted out the entire bank on the starboard side. We won't be able to fire starboard Vipers until engineering can get a repair crew down there."

"You really think the bastards knew where to fire?" Robert said.

Miko made a swiping gesturing, usually indicative of data access on an aReal. "The alien ship that's guarding the exit Slipstream likely recorded our previous encounter. They saw us fire the Viper broadsides, and know what those turrets are capable of at short ranges. Though I do wonder why they didn't hit the turrets on the nose in their initial laser strike."

"Their first shot was exploratory, likely." Robert rubbed his earlobe. "Launch a couple of mortars from starboard tubes. Slow speed. Put something between our hull and that laser before the next strike. See if you can place the mortars to protect critical systems."

"I'll see what Maxwell can come up with," Miko said. A moment later: "Launching four mortars."

A prompt appeared on Robert's display. It was Maxwell requesting permission to override helm control.

"Helm, I'm giving Maxwell the controls momentarily."

The AI took the helm and fired thrusters to adjust the pitch and yaw of the ship so that the slowly drifting mortars would act as an appropriate shield for critical systems.

Robert pulled up the weapon readiness display. The undamaged Vipers were fully charged. Mag-rail point defenses were locked and loaded. Similar readings were displayed for the other ships in the task unit.

"How much damage can our Vipers cause to that laser array from here?" Robert said.

"At a hundred thousand kilometers," Miko said. "The lead segment of the array is well beyond the range limits of the heavy lasers."

"Damn. Instruct all ships to fire a couple of bursts from their mag-rails at the lead segment. Let's see how the laser array reacts."

"One of the mortars is obstructing our own mag-rails on that side," Miko said. "But I can certainly have the other ships in the task unit fire."

"Do it," Robert said.

Each ship would have to rely upon the AIs to aim at that distance, as the weapons were meant for point defense.

"Slugs released across all vessels," Miko said. "They should reach the enemy ship in approximately fifteen minutes."

The laser array fired again, easily eating through one of the mortars and then striking another two Viper turrets.

"Miko, replace that mortar," Robert said.

"Aye sir."

"And instruct the
Aurelia
,
Maelstrom
,
Dagger
, and
Linea
to form a line in front of the
Callaway
. We're going to take turns bearing the brunt of that laser."

Miko relayed his orders and the specified ships in the task unit began to close with the
Callaway
.

"Members of Task Unit One are breaking off to engage the second group of alien attackers," Ensign Lewis announced.

Robert glanced at the 3D display. The second group was well on the way to the
Fortitude
and her escorts. Two destroyers, the
Devastator
and the
Halberd
, had separated to take on the enemy. A part of Robert wanted those aliens to stop the admiral.

He focused his attention on the blue dots of the Avenger squadrons, which slowly approached the laser array behind the mortar screen. The
Callaway's
fighters were about twenty thousand kilometers from the lead segment. So far, the enemy fighters had made no move to intercept.

Good luck, pilots,
Robert thought.

He braced himself as the laser array fired again.

Wolf sat tensely in the cockpit of the Avenger. The bodysuit felt tighter than usual. Another subtle reminder that this was not a simulation.

He sensed rather than saw the presence of Lin Akido, his copilot, beside him. He didn't see his own body, of course, nor any part of the cockpit. He floated disembodied in deep space behind the mortar, the backdrop of stars motionless beyond it. The large rock itself seemed stationary—the only reason Wolf knew he was moving forward was because of the stream of simulated particles that indicated his motion vector.

He glanced at the virtual rear-view mirror. Behind him, three AI-operated fighters were lined up in single file. Far to his right, the other manned fighter in Orange Squadron, piloted by Jeremy Walker and his copilot Tim Brown, hid behind another mortar; they were also at the head of three drones. The two wings of Red Squadron weren't visible to the naked eye, but according to the HUD map they resided behind similar mortars to the left.

The manned Avengers leading each drone wing had been equipped with the charged field enhancements, though that would prove useless against any enemy lasers. So far, however, the enemy had ignored the incoming mortars entirely.

He sensed Lin shifting beside him.

"We're in range," she said.

It was time.

"Walker, prepare to engage," Wolf said over the comm.

The mortar directly ahead of the fighter abruptly broke apart.

Wolf applied dorsal thrust and dove underneath the debris. He tilted the nose upward and used the AI to line up against the distant target that had presented itself—one of the enemy fighters had separated from the array. No, three of them, according to the HUD.

Wolf fired one of the six Hellfire X90 missiles that came standard with each Avenger. He followed that up with a Cobra strike—the extremely short range laser the Avenger had aboard.

The X90 detonated halfway to the enemy fighter.

"What happened?" Wolf said.

"Looks like the fighter fired a laser," Lin said. "Took out the missile."

The controls abruptly pulled downward.

"The AI detected incoming laser fire and issued evasive maneuvers to protect the hull," Lin said, explaining the sudden dive.

Wolf turned the nose toward the enemy.

"Incoming slugs..." Lin said.

Wolf launched a volley of mag-rails toward the enemy fighter and issued evasive maneuvers. The drones in his wing fired their own Cobras at the enemy.

More of the enemy fighters came in, forcing the drones to separate. 

Wolf closed with the target and what followed was a heated laser and mag-rail exchange. While the AI handled the tactical maneuvers necessary to evade the incoming lasers, he controlled the general trajectory of the Avenger and the weapons. He had "target help" turned on for the mag-rails, meaning that he had merely to stare at his given target, squeeze the trigger, and the guns would properly lead the target. 

He passed close to one of the fighters. The enemy hulls were hued slightly golden. Twin noses separated by three meters protruded from the front, ending in spherical humps where they joined the main body. Long tubes hung underneath the ventral area—likely the enemy's laser and mag-rail equivalents. There weren't any obvious missile hardpoints. The aft section folded back on four sides into a pyramid-like point where the thrust emerged.

"Lin," Wolf said. "Instruct two of the drones to break away, and concentrate on the laser array."

"On it," Lin answered. A moment later: "There's still an escort of twelve fighters around the array. It—" She paused. "We just lost both fighters."

"Damn it. Send a boy to do a man's job..."

He launched an X90 at his current target and reversed course, heading toward the starboard side of the array. It swarmed with fighters.

"There are too many of them," Lin said.

Two of the fighters thrust toward him. The HUD indicated that the other fighter behind him had turned around, evaded the X90, and was hot on his tail.

"Slugs incoming..." Lin said.

Wolf heaved hard to the right. The inertial compensators took a millisecond to kick in, and he felt a moment of stomach-churning Gs. If those compensators were ever damaged, the fight was basically over. 

The pursuing enemy banked behind him, also avoiding the slugs.

He spun his nose toward the laser segment and fired the Cobra.

"We're too far away," Lin said. "You caused barely a scratch on the array."

"Walker, cover me," he said. He dove the Avenger toward the array, wanting to close the range. Three enemy fighters from the swarm abruptly converged in his path and fired mag-rails. Wolf was forced to abandon the attack run.

Two more dots blinked out on the display, these attributed to Red Squadron. Drones, luckily.

So far the good guys were down by four fighters and had taken out none of the enemy.

It wasn't looking good.

* * *

Robert stared at the tactical display. The
Callaway, Aurelia
,
Maelstrom
,
Dagger
, and
Linea
had formed a queue before the long range weapon; after the laser array fired, the leading task unit ship would jockey out of position and navigate to the rear of the queue. Behind them, the
Selene
,
Grimm
and
Marley
had similarly lined up, though they did not participate in the rotation.

It was the
Callaway's
turn at the front once again. They had rotated their aft section to face the enemy, with a few strategically placed mortars to protect their thruster vents.

"The array segments are moving to the right slightly," Ensign Lewis announced. "Edging out of the way of the mag-rail slugs we fired ten minutes ago."

"Miko, update me on the Avengers."

"Our sensors grossly underestimated the number of enemy fighters," Miko said. "Apparently they were flying too close together to show up as distinct units on the thermal band. But now that the Avengers are out there, it's apparent our squadrons are outnumbered three to one." 

"Have the
Aurelia, Dagger
, and
Linea
launch their reserve squadrons," Robert said. "I want them out there and lending whatever aid they can."

"Aye sir," Miko said.

Robert watched as twenty-four new blue dots appeared on the tactical display, eight each launched from their respective vessels. Would it be enough?

"I need options, people," Robert said. "A backup plan in case our fighters fail."

"We could close to Viper range with the first segment?" Ensign Lewis said.

"If that laser can eat through six meters of hull at one hundred thousand kilometers," Robert said. "I'd hate to see what it could do under twenty thousand."

"Launch a few backup kinetic kill weapons," Miko said. "Give the first segment and its fighter escort a wide berth, and target the second and third segments instead. With the Avengers providing a distraction, maybe our missiles can sneak past without any of the enemy fighters noticing."

"Do it," Robert said. "But have the
Dagger
and
Linea
launch the missiles. The
Callaway
has already wasted enough kinetics of her own."

"Enemy is firing laser array again," Ensign Lewis said. "Direct hit to hull section eighty-five. We have a breach."

"Damage report?" Robert said.

"The aft sections of decks five and six are exposed to space. Ten crew members reported missing."

"Albright!" Robert shouted over the comm. "Get rid of that laser!"

"My pilots are working on it," the space wing commander returned.

* * *

The fighting was hopeless out there. Every time Wolf or one of the others attempted to close with the laser array, four or five enemy fighters moved to block their path. He had tried sending in two drones from different directions, and then coming in from a third attack vector himself, but every single time the enemy crafts moved to intercept him.

On the third such attack run, Wolf noticed a pattern while he fled. Or at least he thought he did.

Coordinating with Walker, he tried another run. He turned away when the enemies came at him and he evaded for seven seconds. On cue, the fighters reversed course to protect the array.

Seven seconds. When engaging an Avenger, the enemy always pursued for seven seconds before turning back to protect the array.

He revealed his findings to Lin.

"You and your patterns," Lin said. "You saw how well your reliance on them worked out for us the last time."

"But that was a simulation," Wolf said.

"Exactly," Lin returned. "Things are a bit different in real life."

"Are they?"

"Your plan relies on two assumptions," Lin said. "The first, that the AIs will repeat the pattern. The second, that every alien fighter is AI operated. If one or both assumptions are false, it won't work."

"I'm open to other options," Wolf said. When she didn't say anything, he added: "That's what I thought."

He tapped in Walker, as well as Trent, leader of Red Squadron. "Here's what we're going to do ladies and gents."

* * *

Robert watched the blue dots of the Avengers struggle against the red. The relief squadrons were still fifty thousand kilometers away. Another blue dot vanished.

We're going to lose the
Callaway's
two squadrons
, he thought bitterly.

He directed his attention to the first task unit. The enemy had left behind a dart ship to deal with the
Devastator
and
Halberd
, while the remaining alien vessels in the second group continued toward the
Fortitude
and
Hurricane
. The supercarrier had launched several nukes and missiles escorted by fighter wings. Robert watched the small dots representing those Avengers close with one of the pursuers. The enemy must have fired its particle beam, because several of those blue dots winked out, including that of the lead Avenger. The range was five thousand kilometers. The chief weapons engineer of the
Hurricane
hadn't upgraded any of the Avengers with charged fields, then, despite the guidelines Harv had sent out. The fool
.
Other Avengers from the
Hurricane
were lost when the enemy detonated the nukes the fighters escorted.

A flashing alert drew Robert's attention to the battle closer at hand.

"Some of the enemy fighters are breaking off to intercept the kinetic kill missiles we launched against the second segment twenty minutes ago," Miko said.

"So much for sneaking past them while they're distracted," Robert muttered. 

Miko looked up. "We lost the missiles."

* * *

Wolf tapped his feet impatiently inside the bodysuit. He was drifting in space, so far unmolested, biding his time some five kilometers from the port side of the array. It was the closest he could get without drawing any unwanted attention from the enemy.

He wished the focusing mirrors in the Avengers were bigger, but there was nothing he could do to improve the extremely short range of the Cobras. He was tempted to fire a stream from the mag-rails, but he knew the array would readily move aside at that range. And while it might disrupt any shots the array had planned, the device would inevitably survive. No, he had to wait until he had the perfect shot lined up.

On the starboard and dorsal sides of the array, all of the remaining Avengers in Orange and Red Squadrons swooped in at the same time, firing Cobras at different alien fighters to draw their attention and then fleeing as the enemy intercepted and pursued. Wolf waited. Unfortunately three of the enemy fighters chose to remain behind to protect the array.

The next attack run, the same three fighters remained behind. They simply refused to leave the array unprotected.

I was wrong
, Wolf thought.

And then those three enemy fighters abruptly broke away, heading out into deep space. Wolf wasn't sure why, at first, but then he realized they were moving off to engage the kinetic kill missiles the task unit had apparently launched at one of the more distant segments.

Thank you, Captain!

He slammed down on the thrust. He had already wasted two of the seven seconds waiting for those three ships to move off.

"Fire an X90?" Lin said.

"Not yet."

He closed to within one kilometer, punching past two of the enemy as they struggled to turn around and engage him.

"The X90," Lin said urgently.

"Not yet."

Five hundred meters.

Wolf fired an X90.