Warpath (16 page)

“We have a ship on
scanners,” Agameg said from the tactical station. “It is of Sol
System design.”

Hausgiest would not
allow himself to be interrupted. “Ten years ago, Citadel put this
assault into motion, sending this asteroid belt towards this
position, at this time. They are here.”

“How do you know?”
Oz asked.

“I have contacted
their on board Intelligence, and it tells me that they have allied
with the Order of Eden to set the future to right. They demand that
we surrender the Triton.”

There was no wavering
in Hausgiest’s loyalty to Oz and his crew, a concern he’d had
about what would happen if they ran into another Sol Defence ship, or
another of his kind. He realized that he shouldn’t have been
concerned, in fact, it was sealing off seventy sections of the ship
with heavy bulkhead doors and starting all their secondary power
generation systems up. “Be calm, calculate the way ahead, don’t
panic,” Oz said to the ship’s steward, and he could feel
Hausgiest ease a little.

“Sir, I don’t see
any data stream or ident contact between the Triton or the other
ship,” announced a communications officer.

“Don’t worry about
it, Ensign,” Oz said, aware that Hausgiest’s communication with
the other ship was telepathic. He could feel a trace of the other
ship’s controller, it was much younger, perhaps only a few years
old.

“They are directing
weapons at us,” Agameg said.

“With what kind of
accuracy?” Oz asked.

“Ninety three point
four percent,” Agameg replied. “Our cloaking systems are
ineffective.”

“Deactivate all
cloaking systems. Eject the Warlord with instructions to remain
cloaked and to get some distance. Bring up our new shields, at least
we have something they haven’t seen yet,” Oz said. At a glance he
could see where the enemy ship was revealing itself.

It was called the
Pontos. The narrow, flat face of the vessel was beginning to emerge
from the far side of the asteroid field. Behind that four hundred
metre tall face the hull split into two thick hull segments that
extended three hundred metres behind. A forest of long antennae and
long devices extended from the rear of the ship. A main hangar rested
in the cleft between the two hulls, well protected by shields and
thick hull plating. “Send the following to Pontos Command,” Oz
took a slow breath before continuing. For most of the crew, this was
their first contact with anyone from Earth. “This is our
opportunity to peacefully speak about major events in the galaxy and
how we can resolve numerous issues that affect the lives of billions
of people. The meeting of our two ships, and our leadership could
bring about a new era, regardless of your recently formed alliance
with the Order of Eden.”

Lieutenant Commander
Liara Erron stared at him for a moment with a surprised expression.
Oz nodded, and the she sent the message without further delay.

“We wait,” Oz said,
standing and resisting the temptation to pace.

“All systems are
ready for deployment,” came the voice of Chief Mendle through his
command seat.

Hausgiest sent one
thought to him, then fell silent. ‘You are wise to make this
attempt. To avoid war is more valiant than winning one.’

“The Warlord is
away,” Agameg said. “There are no indications that the Pontos is
tracking it.”

Admiral McPatrick
nodded and started to indulge in his urge to pace, slowly walking
forwards and backwards in front of his command seat. “Good,” he
said. “Good, Jake will react to this in his own way. Good, good,”
he muttered to himself quietly. “How is your analysis of the Pontos
coming?” he asked.

“Badly, but we can
see an Order of Eden carrier hiding in the asteroid belt, they’re
not moving,” replied Henrietta. “As for Pontos, the hull is
reflecting most scanning signals just like the Triton’s does.”

“Older ship? Younger
ship?” Oz said.

“Most likely much
younger, but the weapons, from what we can see are inferior by a wide
margin,” Agameg reported. “The Order of Eden carrier is beginning
to move.”

“Incoming
transmission,” announced Lieutenant Commander Erron. She played it
without waiting for the order. “We do this as a warning. Do not
interfere with the Order of Eden. Do not ponder Citadel’s purpose
or act upon our people.”

The Pontos opened a
wormhole and passed into it. Three destroyers and two battlecruisers
appeared on scanners, revealing themselves inside the asteroid field
as they activated their main systems. The carrier began launching
fighters. “This is a distraction,” Oz said.

“Ready to launch
fighters!” announced Chief Paula Mendle.

“Hold!” Oz shouted
towards the Flight Deck underfoot. “Where does that wormhole go?”

“It led to Kambis
Orbital Space,” Agameg announced.; “Opposite Tamber, where we
have the least defences.”

“Warlord reports that
they are moving in to block the incoming fighters and to fire main
guns on that carrier,” communications announced.

“Activate our cloaked
torpedoes. Launch a full volley at that asteroid belt, ahead of the
destroyers and that carrier when ready,” Oz turned to the helm.
“Navigation, send new orders to the Warlord: They are to do their
best in delaying the carrier group, but to return to Kambis orbital
space as soon as holding them is unreasonable.”

“Yes, Sir,” replied
Liara. After scant seconds she reported; “They have acknowledged
the new orders.”

The torpedoes launched.
Less than three seconds later antimatter explosions filled the view
in front of the Triton as hundreds of asteroids and smaller bodies
were struck, some of the smaller ones spun into the interior of the
field, stirring lower mass stone into a frenzy around the enemy
battle group. “That should slow them down, we’ll have to come
back and clean that up later. All stations, prepare for short range
wormhole travel into a combat zone. Let’s show the galaxy what our
Triton can do.”

The tactical display in
front of Jake’s command seat did not lie. There was little he could
do to further delay the remaining Order Ships while keeping the
Warlord hidden. Even though they could fire cloaked, the amount of
firepower they’d need would reveal their location. One enemy
destroyer was caught by the colliding mass of asteroids at the rear;
it was finished. Two more were leading the carrier in the small group
out of the asteroid field, and the battlecruisers alongside that
destroyer were working in concert with her to combine shield
strength, staying close, displaying an impressive amount of fortitude
for a smaller class of ship. Heavy fighters launched from the
battlecruisers, staying close enough to add to the shield power of
the trio of larger ships.

The carrier was not
launching fighters. “Kadri, can you get a read on how well charged
their wormhole generator is?” Jake asked.

“All the power in
those ships is being directed to maintain their shields. Their
wormhole emitter systems are cold,” Kadri replied. “It looks like
they expect someone to stir up the asteroid field even more.”

“I can confirm,”
Ayan added. “Several of the shield emitters on the battlecruisers
are overloaded, a few on the nose of that carrier are in the same
shape. The fighters running alongside the battlecruisers are making
up for the dead shield emitters.”

Jake looked at the
Warlord in relation to the emerging ships. No one would question his
decision if he simply observed and then reported back to the fleet
once the Order of Eden battle group was gone if their intention was
to escape the system. If their intention was to follow the Pontos to
Kambis and its moons, then he had an opportunity to do some damage to
the battle group. Not enough to stop it, but he could get one shot
that could make them less effective in the next phase of the
engagement – a battle that could be coming to Kambis orbit.

“All batteries, all
launchers,” Jake started, “Load all of our antimatter rounds.
We’re only going to get one chance to make a first impression.”

“We don’t have much
aboard, Sir,” Frost said. “Maybe a minute’s worth of constant
firing for our guns, three shots on the railguns, and seven mines.”

“We won’t have long
to fire,” Jake told him. “Ashley, get us here,” Jake said,
gesturing at the tactical map he could read in his helmet. “Kadri,
ship wide channel, please.” Jake ordered.

“Please stand by for
a message from our Captain,” Kadri said into the open channel
before nodding at Jake.

“The Pontos has just
taken a wormhole in the direction of our home planet. The Triton has
followed it, and our orders are to delay a small Order of Eden battle
group that is about to leave the asteroid field here. The Warlord is
small, but he’s a scrapper, with more armour and weaponry than
anything in his class. We’re going to bloody their noses and bug
out to Kambis Orbital space. For one minute I need your best as we
bash these bastards with all our antimatter ammo, then I need
everyone to do their best as we get to Kambis orbit, where we can get
some backup. Let’s take the fight to ‘em. Seal all hatches and
vacsuits.”

Jake could see the
enemy’s aggressive scans on his tactical display, they knew there
was something else out there with them, but they didn’t seem to
know what it was.

Ashley was moving the
Warlord into position carefully, avoiding the strongest scanning
signals. “Moving at stealth thrust,” Ashley replied as they
Warlord lowered itself into position right above the carrier. They
were beside a large asteroid that was rolling through space alongside
them that kept the sweeping scanners on an entire side of the carrier
group from testing their stealth systems. The carrier itself was
close enough to block most of the rest of the scans.

Jake could hear a
distant clang under foot as the new rounds were loaded into the
railguns. “Sir,” Stephanie said over a private channel. “We are
massively outmatched here, we could stand by and bug out when we know
where they’re going.”

“Our orders are to
delay these ships. We will have only seconds to do anything
effective,” Jake said.

“Why aren’t we
getting reinforcements from Kambis orbit?” she asked.

“Because, aside from
the Triton, we are the heaviest class ship with a working cloaking
system. Anyone else would be torn to shreds in minutes,” Jake
replied. They closed on the position he’d indicated, right beside a
large asteroid, and only nine hundred metres above the carrier.
Ashley pointed the Warlord’s nose at the lead destroyer, less than
three kilometres ahead. Those antimatter railgun rounds would land in
exactly the right place.

“All stations,
prepare to fire on my mark,” Jake said. “Ashley, once all our
mines are off, break off at full thrust and get us here, behind this
cluster. Frost, fire all three railguns, then drop our mines. Gun
emplacements will unload throughout this volley.”

“Aye,” Frost said.
“All stations report ready.”

Jake took a deep breath
and let it out slowly, the Warlord had settled into the perfect
position, the destroyers in the lead were almost completely clear of
the asteroids, one was beginning to turn to the right. He watched one
of the nearby asteroids approach from the carrier group’s port
side. One of the lead destroyers launched five rockets at it. They
buried themselves in the surface of the asteroid and continued to
thrust, slowing it down so it just grazed their shields. Even though
it was only a light touch to the group’s shields, it was enough to
strain them. “Three, two, one, mark.”

The deck plate under
his feet rattled as all three of the Warlord’s main railguns fired.
Their shields reported a massive strike as soon as they impacted and
detonated against the lead destroyer. The Warlord’s shields were
down to twenty three percent charge. Jake saw that extra power was
being routed to the shield batteries. The Warlord’s emitters had
taken no damage, so they recharged their shields at a rate of three
percent per second.

“Main sensors are
overloaded,” Kadri announced. “Switching.”

The Warlord’s gunners
were so close to the carrier that they didn’t need the sensor suite
to score hits on the enemy ship. Their antimatter mines dropped, and
Jake shifted to the edge of his seat. “Go, Ashley, get us out of
here!” Their shields were only up to forty three percent, if they
were too close to their antimatter mines when they went off, there
would be nothing left of the Warlord.

All their thrusters
fired at maximum burn, a glance at the exterior view on the bridge’s
main monitor revealed that the Warlord looked like a fireball from
the middle back. He watched as they gained distance from their
position above the carrier, skimming across the asteroid drift
towards the upper edge of a cluster on the far side. They were only
half way there when the carriers point defence guns fired at the
mines, setting one off within a kilometre of the enemy’s hull. The
one set the other six off immediately and the blast struck the
Warlord’s hull hard enough for him to hear the thunderous blow
through his helmet. They were far too close to the detonation. Jake
hoped they’d have enough ship left to fly away from a fight he knew
they’d lose.

The Warlord went dark,
and emergency systems started coming online. They had inertial
dampers, and most of their manoeuvring thrusters.

“Main communications
systems are down,” Kadri said. “Backups are taking over.”

“All main thrusters
are down, resetting,” Finn said. “One through three are coming
back on line, but four is disconnected.”

“Secondary navigation
array is coming back online,” Ayan said. “The primary nav is
reading dead.”

“Targetting systems
are offline,” Frost said. “It is drawing no power.”