The Void War (Empire Rising Book 1) (25 page)

Slowly the timer on Lightfoot’s holo display counted down, as it reached zero he began to bark out orders. “Johnston, now! Sensors begin transmitting. Lieutenant Greaves, open the shuttle bay doors, give Lieutenant Beckford the go ahead. Navigation, begin our deceleration burn.”

At once Lightfoot’s plan sprang into action. Six low powered plasma bolts shot out from
Ghost
and hit targets along the aft sections of the freighters’ hulls. Just as the Chinese officers on watch began to receive damage updates, their passive sensors began to beep furiously alerting the crew that a ship, impossibly close, had just opened its shuttle bay doors. Johnston’s shots had only taken out their outgoing communications relays and so into the mix the COMS stations aboard the freighters began to demand attention, for
Ghost
was bombarding their remaining laser COM receivers with a message to surrender.

“Chinese freighters, this is HMS
Ghost
. We have disabled your communications relays and are sending over a boarding party. Surrender immediately or be destroyed. You have carried out an act of war against Great Britain and we demand your surrender. Chinese freighters, this is…”

Lightfoot watched as the Chinese freighters remained inactive. Either their bridge crews were frozen in fear or they were simply overwhelmed by their situation. Either way it didn’t matter. The couple of minutes of inactivity had given the two shuttles enough time to latch onto each freighter and the boarding parties were already cutting their way into each hull. It was just as well that
Ghost
had been unable to slow down her approach for fear that the fighters would pick up her engine emissions and be spooked off. Even though the navigation officer had already begun to decelerate,
Ghost
was already passing out of point defense plasma range and couldn’t offer any support to the marines without giving her presence away to the approaching fighters.

Yet, now that the marines were on board, Lightfoot knew nothing short of a miracle would save the freighters. Even if the Chinese had a marine equivalent of their own, the short warning wouldn’t have given them time to prepare. His marines were going in fully equipped in powered combat armor. Checking his holo display, he could see a small energy reading coming from each shuttle, indicating they had deployed their jammers, stopping any personal communicators from sending a warning to the approaching missileboats. Confident that the first phase of his plan had gone well, he turned his attention to phase two.

*

By the time
Ghost
had worked her way back to the two freighters the Chinese missileboats were only fifteen minutes away. Once back in range of laser COMS, Lightfoot had contacted Lieutenant Beckford and was getting a report on the boarding action.

“So that sums it up sir. Both freighters are space worthy. Six Chinese crew were killed, we lost one marine to an armed Chinese officer and another injured.”

“Acknowledged Lieutenant,” Lightfoot began, “Have the engineers you took over with you had a chance to look at the fighter bays to give us a better idea of what we are facing?”

“Better than that sir,” Beckford answered. “There are ten more of the craft in each of the freighters. I’m sending you all the technical data the engineers were able to find or deduce themselves.”

“Thank you Lieutenant, I’ll be back in touch after I have reviewed the data,” Lightfoot said as he closed the COM channel and put the new data up on the bridge’s main holo display.

Without hesitation, the First Lieutenant began to walk the bridge through the engineer’s findings. Gomez had been with Lightfoot on
Surprise
as a Second Lieutenant and already, since
Ghost’s
commissioning a month ago it was obvious he wouldn’t be staying a First Lieutenant for long.

“It appears the Chinese call these fighters missileboats. They are equipped with two high acceleration low yield anti-ship missiles and a single plasma cannon. Their top speed is 0.35c and their acceleration is fifteen percent higher than ours. The engineers indicate that only the forward thirty percent of each craft is armored with valstronium so they are very vulnerable to proximity kills, either from a missile detonation or a flak round. The data we have from the battle around Cook indicates that each of the remaining missileboats fired of all their missiles so we just have to worry about their plasma cannons.”

“Ok,” Lightfoot interjected. “We’ll go with plan alpha then. Navigation begin to move us away from the freighters.”

The dilemma Lightfoot faced was simple. He knew where the enemy was going but he simply didn’t have the firepower to stop all of them. With over a dozen missileboats heading right for him, he couldn’t hope to take them all out with his plasma cannons before they were able to return fire and potentially cripple
Ghost
. If he tried to fire his missiles at them he would only warn them of his presence and give them a chance to escape. That left him with only one option; he was going to bluff.

Once far enough away from the two freighters,
Ghost
began to jettison missiles from her tubes. Without their engines engaged they simply floated in space.
Ghost
continued doing this for as long as time allowed before she turned around and headed back to the freighters. Just as the missileboats came to a stop 3000km, from the freighters
Ghost
turned to bring her main plasma cannons to bear on them.

“Captain, Lieutenant Beckford has informed us that the missileboats are contacting the freighters by laser COM. They are requesting the freighters turn on their running lights and open their cargo bay doors,” the COMS officer announced.

“Tell him to ignore them,” Lightfoot ordered. “Tactical, how many missileboats do you have targeted?”

“I have three lined up with our main plasma cannons and six more with the point defense cannons. Two more are within range of some of the missiles we released,” Johnston informed her Captain.

“COMS, when Johnston opens fire, I want you to immediately begin broadcasting,” Lightfoot ordered. “Johnston switch your targets as soon as you have a confirmed kill. On my mark. Fire!”

Bolts of plasma immediately shot out all over
Ghost’s
hull as every weapon that could bear on the fighters opened fire. At once, three fighters evaporated as heavy bolts cut right through them. Within a couple of seconds six more disappeared as smaller bolts peppered them and quickly punched through their weaker rear armor. Almost simultaneously with the explosions that marked the deaths of the first three fighters, two thermonuclear explosions erupted in the midst of the missileboats formation taking three more with them.

A number of the missileboat commanders immediately began to accelerate away from the area of destruction. Others, seeing a message being broadcast from
Ghost
hesitated just long enough to think through what it said.

“Coms, status update, has our bluff worked?” Lightfoot queried after the first shots were fired.

“I think so sir,” the COMS officer replied. I’m receiving surrender messages from all but three of the missileboats.”

Without looking over to Johnston, Lightfoot knew she was firming up firing solutions on the three remaining missileboats. As he watched, two heavy plasma bolts reached out and plucked one from the tactical display. Instinctively he knew that the other two were likely to get far enough away to allow their evasive maneuvers to work well enough to escape. Quickly Lightfoot accessed the tactical feed himself and took control of the missiles
Ghost
had dropped. None were in range of the fleeing missileboats but four were close. Selecting them he sent their detonation signals and then flicked open a communication channel.

“Fleeing missileboats, you are in a mine field. Repeat you are in a minefield. The next detonations will not be a warning.”

Almost in unison both ships cut their drives and began to power down, announcing their surrender. Lightfoot let out a sigh of relief. He wanted to get all the missileboats. With their speed and agility it could have taken days to capture them, all the while they could have been harassing freighter shipping in the system.

Without the firepower to stop them, Lightfoot had decided to try and trick the Chinese commanders into thinking they had been trapped in a minefield. It wasn’t that unbelievable given the fact the Chinese commanders must have realized the RSN had found their freighters. Lightfoot was just glad more hadn’t tried to flee or worse, had opened fire on the freighters.

*

Half a day later
Ghost,
joined by the light cruiser
Righteous,
who had chased the missileboats out of the system, were escorting the two freighters back towards Cook. Already two courier ships were well on their way to Earth and Britannia, one to warn of a possible attack and the other to report back to the Admiralty. In his private office Lightfoot was reviewing the intelligence data the boarding parties had sent back when the officer on watch interrupted him.

“Captain, we have received a communication from Admiral McGreevy on the battlestation
Chester
. It’s for your eyes only so I’ve sent it to your office terminal.”

Intrigued, Lightfoot keyed an acknowledgement before turning to put the message on the holo display. When the Admiral’s face appeared he looked somewhat haggard and his uniform was crumpled but the smile on his face was genuine.

“Captain Lightfoot, it appears congratulations are in order again. Not only did you give us plenty of warning about the incoming attack, you have likely prevented an even more devastating attack on Britannia. You seem to be blessed by lady luck herself. I’m sure the Admiralty will be rewarding you for what you have done here. However, your work isn’t over yet. It seems the Admiralty got wind of this Chinese attack through some RSNI agents and they have already decided to retaliate in kind. The courier that arrived in system just ahead of the attack also contained orders for you. You are to take
Ghost
into the Void and deliver the orders I’m sending to the commanding officer at Excalibur. If I had to guess you’ll be taking
Ghost
on into Chinese space to repay the damage they’ve done to us here. I also have orders to dispatch two frigates back to Earth. It looks like a second force is going to go up the shift passage from Earth to Beta and then into Chinese space so you’ll not be alone. Give them hell for me Captain. McGreevy out.”

The message had taken a number of hours to reach
Ghost
and so there was no point sending back a reply. Instead, Lightfoot ordered the COMS officer to send an acknowledgement that they had received their orders. Then he set about recalling his boarding parties and handing over control of the two freighters to the light cruiser
Righteous
. There was an in system shuttle bringing the rest of his assigned crew from Cook. Once it arrived they would be ready to head on to the Void, the official ceremony declaring
Ghost
space worthy had obviously been shelved for the time being. It looked like
Ghost
would be seeing action again very soon.

As in the Earth navies before the dawn of the space age, courage and bravery have been the hallmarks of what the Empire seeks to instill into its recruits. Whilst these attributes were exemplified in the wet navies of Earth the legacy handed down to the Empire’s navy was forged in the colonial wars of the first Interstellar Expansion Era.

-Excerpt from Empire’s Rising, 3002 AD

16
th
April 2465 AD, HMS
Drake
, New Stockholm system, previously designated V34

Aboard
Drake,
James was sitting in his office rereading the first old style novel his uncle had given him. He had finished the last novel months ago on
Drake’s
return journey to Earth after discovering the Void. Since then he had been too busy to even think of them again. That had all changed once
Drake
had been posted to New Stockholm. For nearly two months
Drake
had been circling the system, watching the Swedes begin to set up their colony on the habitable planet. Initially, James had tried to resist the urge to go back and reread the books in case they distracted him from his command. A week ago he had given in. With nothing happening and not even any news coming through from the rest of the Void, he needed a distraction.

As he turned another page, the buzzer on his door went off. With a flick of his wrist he hit the button to allow the door to open and Gupta walked in. James was surprised to find that he was happy to see her. Since their heart to heart and everything that had happened to them after, their relationship had been changing. It was the duty of a ship’s second ranking officer to run the day to day needs of a ship on behalf of its Captain, only bringing problems up the chain of command that warranted attention. Initially, when James had taken over command of
Drake,
Gupta had used this tradition to freeze him out. She had never come to him with a problem or involved him in the running of the ship. At the time James had been happy with the arrangement as he drowned in his own self-pity. In return he had shut her out of the command decisions that fell on his shoulders. 

Since they had come to New Stockholm things had changed. Gupta had begun to consult him when it came to the running of the ship and the crew, he, in turn, had begun to share his thinking and plans with her. Their relationship still wasn’t functioning like the well-oiled machine he had been taught to expect at the academy but it was getting there. James had also been enjoying the closer relationship he had been able to forge with the rest of his crew now that Gupta had opened that world up to him. He believed he had earned their respect with everything they had been through so far but now he hoped that in the last couple of months had also begun to earn their friendship.

Shaking himself out of his thoughts, he motioned for Gupta to take a seat opposite him. “So what can I do for you Lieutenant?”

“Sir,” Gupta started but before she did James interrupted as he raised his hands. “James, you can call me James in private.”

“Yes sir, James I mean. And it would be my pleasure if you call me Georgia. As I was saying, we both know the crew are beginning to get restless. Not only are we stuck here while the war rages on around us. We haven’t heard any news for nearly two months. Worse, being permanently stuck in stealth mode has meant we’ve had to limit our use of non-essential equipment. There is a long waiting list for most of our leisure and entertainment platforms and it’s growing all the time. The virtual reality suit and sports simulators are usually the only things that keep a crew sane during a long commission. I’m not sure I can vouch for their happiness or even willing cooperation if this situation continues much longer.”

As she paused, James took up the conversation. “I’m well aware Georgia but you know we’ve been doing everything we can to distract them. There’s nothing more I can think of. We have tripled the number of combat simulations. We’ve made competitions out of everything we can find and we’ve even allowed those interested to spend some time in other posts to develop new skills. I’m not sure what else we can do.”

“You’re right sir,” Gupta agreed. “I haven’t come with any new ideas but I might have a new approach. I’ve been reviewing our inventories. Our fuel tanks are just above sixty percent but other things are starting to get pretty low. We only have a few weeks of power cells left and we’ve had to change out a number of secondary processor units from the ship’s main computer. We can make do if we run out of either but ideally we need to be resupplied. I know it’s a pretty weak excuse but it might be enough for us to make a quick trip to Excalibur and see if we can locate the supplies we need. I think the break from New Stockholm and some news would do the crew a world of good.”

James was distracted from Gutpa’s ideas by a flashing on his office console. “Hold that thought Georgia.” James intentionally used her first name even though Gupta had slipped back into calling him sir. He was determined to break down the last walls that stood between them. “We might have to make your plan work but for now it looks like we have something to break the monotony. Sensors have just picked up a ship accelerating into the system.”

Both James’ and Gupta’s eyes went to the gravimetric data being displayed on the main holo display as they entered the bridge. It would take hours for any electromagnetic radiation the ship was giving off to reach
Drake
but the gravimetric disturbances caused by its rapid acceleration give them an instant fix on its location. As they watched the ship disappeared off the display. It reappeared a few seconds later on a new vector ninety degrees to its original course. Then it vanished again only to reappear heading straight out of the system.

Immediately James sprang into action. “That’s the prearranged signal indicating Chinese ships have broken out of the blockade. Sensors, what are the Swedes doing?”

Without a means to transmit messages faster than light, the RSN had developed a simple set of signals a ship could use to communicate with ships deeper in a system. By following a set acceleration pattern other ships could pick up the acceleration via their gravimetric sensors and interpret the signal. The meaning of some of the acceleration patterns had been shared with the Swedish forces. A Chinese break out had been one of them.

Sub Lieutenant O’Rourke, who was manning sensors, only took a few seconds to reply, as the Swedish reaction was swift. “Sir, the Swedish warships are maneuvering. It looks like the two destroyers on picket patrol are heading to meet up with the light cruiser and destroyer that are protecting the colony ship.”

Smart, James thought. Outside the Void, attacks on a system usually came along a set vector, as ships were limited on where they could go because of the dark matter strewn between solar systems. In the Void, the Chinese could attack from any direction and so it didn’t make sense for the Swedish to split their forces.

“Ok,” James spoke to the bridge at large. “Let’s assume that Admiral Cunningham managed to get off this warning before the Chinese ships succeeded in jumping away from V17. That gives us a little bit of time before they get here. Their most likely target is going to be Excalibur but we need to be prepared. Navigation, plot us a course closer to the Swedish squadron. I want to be able to lend our support if we are needed. Take us there at six percent thrust.

*

Two hours later everyone in the New Stockholm system got the answer to the question they were asking. The Chinese had decided to hit New Stockholm. Back during his days at the academy James had loved to gamble. If it hadn’t been inappropriate for a Captain to make bets with his crew, he would have wagered a considerable amount on the Chinese bypassing New Stockholm. Yes, the Chinese had laid claim to the whole Void but they couldn’t expect the UN to let them keep it all. They were already at war with the British; it made no sense to attack another power.

Yet here they were and James had to make the best of it. Almost in silence the bridge watched four ships begin to accelerate into the system. They could only be Chinese as they weren’t altering course to make any of the prearranged signals. When it was clear they were hostiles, the Swedish warships accelerated out of orbit around New Stockholm to meet them. James understood what the Swedish Admiral was thinking. The Chinese goal was to force the Swedish to abandon the system. If they lost their warships, the colony ship and accompanying supply ships would have to return to Earth. The Admiral was offering the Chinese his ships in the hope they would then leave the colonists alone. Brave, but foolish. The Swedish were at least thirty years behind the Chinese in military tech. If the four Chinese ships were anything bigger than frigates they would blow their way past the Swedish warships and the colony ship would be at their mercy. RSNI estimated that the Swedish colony ship could hold up to forty thousand colonists.

As the Swedish warships rose to meet the Chinese, Gupta turned to James. “Shall we follow them sir and give them what assistance we can?”

“No,” James answered. “We don’t have the firepower to alter the course of the coming battle. We would just lose this ship for nothing. The Swedish Admiral should have tried to run for it. If they had tried to keep the Chinese at maximum range, they may have managed to take out enough missiles to survive long enough to jump away. If they had tried, we could have added our defensive fire to theirs. But we can’t change the outcome of a missile duel to the death. The colony ship may yet need us so we’ll stay here.”

As Gupta nodded in recognition, James gladly gave the order he knew he should. “Navigation keep us heading towards the colony ship. If they change their orbit or try to break orbit, match their course but don’t exceed ten percent of our maximum thrust.” Helping the Swedish warships was suicide; everything he said to Gupta was true. But it also allowed him to hide his other motives. He wanted to get back to Christine. He loved serving in the navy but he didn’t want to throw his life away for nothing. He had other things that were more important.

*

A deathly silence had descended on the bridge during the three hours it had taken the two groups of ships to enter missile range of each other. In that time
Drake
had entered orbit around New Stockholm and was slowly creeping up on the colony ship. Not being equipped with military grade sensors it was unlikely the Swedes would detect them.

Suddenly the gravimetric plot erupted as the four Chinese ships opened fire using their superior missile range to hammer the Swedes. Sub Lieutenant Fisher, who had been manning sensors since the Chinese had arrived in system had managed to identify the four ships as
Luda
class destroyers. Just before entering missile range they had turned perpendicular to the approaching Swedish ships and presented their broadside missile tubes to them. Twenty new contacts had then appeared on the gravimetric plot as the Chinese opened fire with every missile tube they could bring to bear. 

With both groups of ships closing on each other so fast, the Swedish had just been able to get one missile salvo away before the first from the Chinese hit them. As the battle was taking place nearly a light hour from
Drake,
they could only watch the gravimetric sensors to get a real time indication of what was going on. As the first Chinese salvo crashed into the Swedish their three destroyers disappeared off the plot. The remaining light cruiser fired off another salvo of their own before the second wave of Chinese missiles, already homing in on it, caused it to disappear from
Drake’s
screens as well. The twenty five missiles the Swedish had managed to get off all closed in on the Chinese destroyers but as they disappeared they didn’t manage to take any ships with them.

Clearly satisfied that Swedish forces had been destroyed three of the destroyers began to decelerate and turn back towards the mass shadow of the system. One however, kept coming.

James couldn’t help but curse aloud. “Those bastards, they’re going for the colony ship!”

Moments later a transmission was broadcast out into the system by the Swedish colony ship. It wasn’t encrypted so Sub Lieutenant Graham put it on the main holo display.

The visual showed an aged man who was visibly trying not to shake with what looked like a mixture of rage and fear. “Chinese vessel. My name is Governor Olsson. I am in charge of this colony ship and the colony being set up on New Stockholm. You have destroyed our warships. I offer you our complete surrender. On my word we will vacate this system and return to Earth. There doesn’t need to be any more bloodshed. Again I repeat. I offer you our complete surrender.”