Loyalty to the Cause (TCOTU, Book 4) (This Corner of the Universe) (41 page)

Hall
placed such extraneous thoughts aside as he stared at the next incoming
volley. 
Missiles Four, Five and Six… correction, Vampires Delta, Echo and
Foxtrot… are just ten light-seconds out,
he thought anxiously.  The
nomenclature was strange.  He had never heard missiles referred to as vampires
before, not even by privateers, but these eccentric people possessed such
serene calm they were obviously no strangers to missile attacks.  Already, the petty
officer operating the starboard dual GP turret had obtained a lock on his newly
assigned Javelin.  The first officer not only had locked in Vampire Delta for a
carronade gunner, she was also assigning the next volley of targets to gunners
based on their projected, inbound paths.  The speed and fluidity of
Elathra’s
point defense was mind-boggling to Hall and with little more to do than monitor
GP heat levels, he whispered encouragement to “his” gunner.

Elathra’s
gunners were given twenty-eight
seconds to switch targets and obtain locks before the second volley of Javelins
broke the 5
ls
shell.  Two seconds after the breach, Vampire Echo burst
into a shower of metallic debris and light.  An instant later, Foxtrot was
clipped by a carronade burst that removed fifteen percent of its mass.  The
missile’s center of thrust altered dramatically and it flew apart as it twisted
into an uncontrolled, 77-G turn.  Vampire Delta lived longer but only
marginally.  The first carronade burst missed by kilometers but under Vernay’s
assistance, the gunner maintained his lock to redeem himself a second later.

“Two
waves down,” Hall cheered triumphantly as he rocked back and forth.  He beamed
at Vernay who politely smiled back but placed a subtle finger across her lips. 
Hall caught her meaning immediately and dipped his head back to his console, knee
involuntarily bobbing up and down as his body sought ways to relieve the
tension.  “Courageux is thirty-eight light-seconds out, Commander. 
Twenty-eight light-seconds from direct weapons contact.”

“Acknowledged,”
Vernay said curtly.  “Diane, that fourth-rate will be seven light-seconds from
us when we finish our point defense.  You’ve got to get us into the forward arc
as soon as we’re finished with the missiles.  Then, you have to swing us back to
our broadside for point defense when we come out of five light-seconds.”

Selvaggio
wiped the back of her hand quickly across her brow and nodded.  “Aye, ma’am. 
I’m cheating on
Elathra’s
facing a bit right now.  Those carronades
can’t quite fire ahead of us but they can come close.  You’ll be in the forward
arc before we come within five light-seconds,” she promised.

“They
won’t fire missiles after the pass, ma’am,” Hall stated.  “It would be
considered a violation to fire immediately after a pass since they must give us
a chance to surrender between runs.”

Vernay
shook her head crazily at Hall.  “That’s stupid but I’ll take it, not that I
trust Wallace.  Two more waves to stop, WEPS.”  Her brow furrowed dangerously
as she threatened, “Then, it’s our turn.”

Her fearsome look
both inspired and chilled Hall. 
I will never dare face off against this
crew in combat,
he promised himself.  Across the bridge, he heard
Lieutenant Truesworth call out, “Incoming heavy laser fire from that
fourth-rate, Commander.”

*  *  *

As
Courageux
sailed to within 10
ls
of
Elathra
, she exploited yet another of
her many advantages over the snow.  The Maclex heavy laser, conceived in the
Solarian Federation, unleashed its first barrage of charged energy.  Ten
seconds later, it spit forth a second volley just as the first shots reached
its target.

Elathra’s
defensive screen crackled
against the high-powered rebuke.  Inside the snow’s Combat Defense and
Countermeasure Center, or C-DAC, Seshafian Sub-lieutenant Joseph Curray
monitored the AIPS controls to ensure the screens absorbed as much energy as
possible before shutting down to avoid catastrophic overload.  The AIPS screen
worked superbly, absorbing the first heavy laser barrage completely while
barely avoiding a shutdown.  As soon as the bombardment ceased, Curray worked
feverishly to recharge the screen in anticipation of additional shots.

*  *  *

Hall
was blissfully unaware of the violence occurring along
Elathra’s
defensive screen.  His focus was narrowed solely to the third set of missiles
racing toward his snow, 7
ls
out.  Thomas had Vampire Golf locked tight
and India was hopelessly spoofed by the C-DAC’s electronic countermeasures
efforts.  Only Vampire Hotel appeared to be a danger but both carronades were
teaming up on the threat.  After eight seconds of furious laser fire, all three
vampires had been rebuffed.

Just three more
missiles,
Hall gaped
at the seeming simplicity of it all. 
Nothing can stop us.

*  *  *

Heskan’s
concentration had been so great he did not hear the calls of the successful
missile intercepts.  In the last three minutes, he had devised, plotted and
ordered minute changes to course and plane for each of his fleet’s three
sections.  He hoped to keep the main unengaged or, at the worst, barely grazing
GP laser range, but Wallace had expertly anticipated the angle of his attack.  Heskan
resigned himself to the fact that all three sections would be fully involved in
the pass.  Additional course corrections this late into the run would only
result in mass confusion during the skirmish.  While he may have been bested by
Wallace in charting a fleet course, Heskan believed he outsmarted the Saden
admiral in speed, ensuring the closure rate of each section’s pass would be .25
c
or greater.

With
no final sailing orders to give before his three sections engaged, Heskan regained
situational awareness of
Elathra
.  Unsurprisingly, point defense had
been executed flawlessly.  Earlier in the week, Heskan overheard Vernay talking
to Hall about where to place Thomas and Pruette.  She explained that both
gunners were highly experienced and if “the game” was presenting a best broadside
to the enemy,
Elathra
could ill-afford the absence of such expertise. 
Vernay’s instinct had once again been proven correct.  In the first pass,
Pruette’s single shot with the typically inaccurate particle cannon had placed
its mark on
Specter
while
Elathra’s
second beam missed by a wide
margin.  During missile defense, Thomas’ skill in his dual GP turret enabled
Vernay to augment the inexperienced Seshafian gunners in the carronades.  All
of the petite officer’s formidable instinct and experience in naval combat
united to provide a perfect missile defense strategy for the snow.  Heskan
waited now for his ship to go on the offensive.

Elathra
pivoted slightly under Selvaggio’s
steady hand to present
Courageux
not only her previously masked,
portside particle cannon, but also the coaxially mounted dual laser turret near
it.

The
two adversaries closed to 6
ls
by the time Lieutenant Selvaggio
counter-thrusted to null
Elathra’s
rotation.  At that instant, twin beams
of neutrons pulsed from the linear accelerators of her cannons and reached out
toward
Courageux
at .998
c
.  Heskan noticed that Vernay had
assumed direct control over the portside particle cannon, presumably to provide
Elathra
the best chances for hits at such extreme range with the
powerful weapon.

Courageux’s
second heavy laser volley
arrived as
Elathra
settled into her new facing.  The AIPS screen had
been recharging for ten seconds and achieved seventy-four percent of its
maximum integrity before the volley battered it down.  The charged energy
lashed at
Elathra’s
main hull, flash-vaporizing duralloy to expose the
snow’s vulnerable internal structure to its brutal assault.

The
first compartment depressurized was
Elathra’s
galley.  Unmanned and
secured for combat, minimal debris evacuated with its atmosphere.  As the spit
of energy tore a sinister gash along
Elathra’s
port side, seven enlisted
crew compartments were annihilated and immediately frozen after subjugation to
the frigid rigors of space.  This time,
Elathra
coughed gas and debris
for several seconds along the length of her hull before interior containment
fields flickered into existence to preserve the ship.

The
distance between the combatants reduced to 5
ls
during
Elathra’s
coughing fit and all hell broke loose. 
Courageux’s
enormous quad laser
mount, seated atop the center of her hull, combined her fire with the twin
streams of energy shooting from her stern.  Her heavy laser turret barked
impressively a third time near her bow to punctuate the fusillade. 
Elathra
replied meagerly with only her twin dual GP laser mounts.  The energy flashed
across space while GP gunners in each ship waited impatiently for their weapons
to undergo their two-second recycle time.  As their turrets spat destruction a
second time,
Elathra’s
first particle shots reached
Courageux
.

When
the design of corporate ships of the line evolved to single-sided armament for
best offensive advantage, so too did their defensive design specialize for line
of battle combat.  In addition to an AIPS screen, modern ships of the line were
routinely outfitted with a single, sometimes double, shield generator that
protected the “battle face” of the ship.  This optimization made rated ships
much more powerful in their particular arenas than they otherwise would be.  Shield
generators that would be too weak to shelter an entire ship could focus to protect
her single side, guaranteeing most of the fire she endured would be expended
beating down defenses instead of wreaking havoc inside her hull.

The twin
particle cannon beams of
Elathra
cared not about such things.  Each of
the thirty nano-second pulses issued inside the single salvo penetrated deeply
into
Courageux’s
side shield before depositing their energy several
centimeters into the projected barrier.  Each pulse burrowed deeper and deeper
into the shield wall until the twenty-third pulse breached the shield
entirely.  That pulse continued toward the fourth-rate at nearly the speed of
light, brushing aside the AIPS screen as so much paper, and slammed into the duralloy
armor encasing
Courageux’s
drives.  The thick armor resisted the next
four pulses before succumbing to the inevitable.  The final three pulses burned
through
Courageux’s
inner hull and tore through her rotary-impulse drive
machinery.  A duo of flashes etched the large ship’s stern as
Elathra’s
twin
beams of destruction tore savagely at the line ship’s conventional propulsion.

Two
seconds after
Elathra’s
rebuke, the first of the GP laser volleys
reached their objectives. 
Elathra’s
AIPS screen had but five seconds to
prepare for
Courageux’s
broadside.  The combined fire of six GP lasers
and one Maclex heavy laser crushed the screen’s integrity inside a heartbeat. 
A laser burst struck at one of
Elathra’s
portside carronade mounts and
the alloy cage holding Leading Spaceman Tory Fernandez vanished.  A second
burst painted a line of melted armor over the snow’s forward starboard wing
while a stray burst from
Courageux’s
forward dual mount again deeply
gouged
Elathra’s
ventral radiator.

Each
laser burst dotted the snow with gashes and craters ranging from hideous to
oddly sublime, but the worst of the blows was awarded by the fourth-rate’s
heavy laser.  The Maclex scored nearly a direct hit down the centerline of the
ship, penetrating two-thirds of the way through her to strike at
Elathra’s
bridge.

Until
now, Heskan had neither felt nor heard the grievous blows inflicted upon his
command.  He was monitoring the tactical situation when, in an instant, the
right wall screen displaying the myriad of flashes and decompression events on
Courageux
transformed into a smoking hole.  The sight by itself would have been simply
alarming, but the noise associated with the visage rocked Heskan to his core. 
In all his time in combat, Heskan had never experienced the horror of
decompression.  At the academy, each cadet was forced to endure a simulated atmospheric
evacuation event but Heskan found that preparation sorely lacking as air ripped
from his lungs, his eyes bulged and skin began to freeze by evaporative
cooling.  Without conscious thought, his left hand slapped down his shocksuit
helmet’s visor.  A chime informing him of a secure seal sounded in his helmet
but Heskan’s state of shock rendered him oblivious to the suit’s notice.  He sat
in a stupor for several moments recovering from the calamitous event as the mayhem
continued around him.

While
Heskan regained lucidity, each ship’s GP lasers recycled. 
Elathra’s
laser
gunners, seated safely in their dual mounts and unaware of the catastrophe
occurring on the bridge, dutifully fired their weapons.  In the starboard
particle cannon control room, Gunner’s Mate First Class Pruette volleyed his
second shot at the fourth-rate while the port particle cannon operator, Brevic Lieutenant,
junior grade Daily, a naval aviator turned gunner, waited patiently for
Commander Vernay to activate his weapon.