A Deep Sleep (Valhalla Book 1) (13 page)

“Since we’re in FTL, we’re limited in what we can work on, sir.” He replied. “But I do have all the internal compartments resealed. I’ve also taken the liberty of staging the gravetic repulsors from spares near frame 30. If I get two hours, we’ll get those in place. It won’t be as good as new, but it should hold off a few more enemy rounds, in case you feel like taking us into the breach again sir.”

“Think I’m going to get us into another shooting match, chief?” Athena said with a touch of humor.

“Well sir, your reputation precedes you. I just wanted to be ready.” He replied jovially.

“Why COB, how thoughtful of you.” She replied good naturedly. “Keep me updated.”

“Will do sir.”

Alpha Centauri: Delta Slip Gate

1
st
LRRS: USS
Tripoli

“Flash Traffic! Computer is decoding now sir.” Daniels called out as soon as
Tripoli
transited the gate. Athena figured that couldn’t be good.

“On screen, as soon as it is up. Was there a drone waiting for us?” Athena asked.

“No sir, it’s the new battlestation. She’s broadcasting continuously.” Daniels responded. “On screen now sir.”

Athena read the text and felt a chill run through her body. The message said;

Contact lost with all Sol stations at 1521 Zulu. Ships from this command sent through to max deployable strength. You are ordered to transit to Sol and report situation.

“Ensign Masters, emergency speed. Take us up to max light, right to the stops.” Athena snapped out. Four hours of no contact. Athena had a bad feeling about this situation. “Lieutenant Daniels, confirm receipt.”

“Aye, sir. Firewalling it.”

Alpha Centauri: Alpha Slip Gate

1
st
LRRS: USS
Tripoli

“Approaching Slip Gate transition point.” Johnson said, her voice a reflection of the high tension level in CIC. Alpha Centauri Control had reported the comm relay with Sol had gone offline more than four hours ago. During
Tripoli
’s agonizingly slow journey across the system, Control had fed them all the data they had. It wasn’t much.

Control had ordered her to transit the alpha slip gate and investigate the disruption and attempt to intercede in any attack that may be occurring. They had already sent all of the ships they could spare without risking local system defense and even then they might have stripped it too thinly. When Athena had called engineering, intent on asking for more speed, the Cheng had cut her off without a second’s hesitation. He had informed her that the addition of twelve gunboats to the exterior, plus the havoc the energy distortions of subspace were having on the hull breach meant that he wasn’t interested or comfortable in extracting even a single watt of additional energy from the fusion reactors. She had grudgingly accepted his position and acceded to not increasing the power. Instead, she had made the tactical section re-check all the systems they had already checked. There was some degree of grumbling, but Athena didn’t want them brooding over what was potentially happening in Sol, she wanted them busy. She was doing enough brooding for the whole ship. Finally, they were ready to cross the threshold and enter Sol.

“Sound General Quarters. Battle stations, ship-to-ship.” Athena snapped. The trip across the system had greatly worsened her mood. She knew she should keep it under control for the benefit or the crew, but she just couldn’t quite manage it.

“Ship is manned and ready sir. The gunboats are detached and in formation.
Fort Worth
also reports ready sir.” Daniels said when all stations had checked in.

“Take us in.” Athena ordered. The group was approaching the gate at 0.10C and oblique. Athena planned to rush through the gate, clear of any picket forces, and get a good idea of what was happening in Sol.

Sol: Alpha Slip Gate

1
st
LRRS: USS
Tripoli

“Sensor data coming in now sir.” Johnson called out.

“Quick and dirty, Ensign, no time for the specifics.” Athena instructed.

“Yes sir. Alpha Gate Battle Station is gone sir, debris cloud around the gate. Picking up residual radiation, indications of a lot of ordnance sir.” Johnson said. “I’m getting a lot of signatures from in system sir, but passive isn’t giving me great clarity.”

“Go active, five pulses.” Athena said. Active sensors would give them a much better picture of the system, at the cost of solidifying their position to within 100 meters for anyone with a working sensor system.

“Yes sir.” She replied.

“Heavy ordinance,” Heath snorted. “I should think so. The alpha gate station was a monster only dwarfed by the ones in Earth orbit. I should think it would take something like a half dozen battle groups just to bring one down.”

The lights flickered briefly and dimmed as the ship power was diverted for the first pulse, then steadied as the reactors picked up the additional load. The tactical plot immediately filled in as the second pulse was sent from the ship. The plot looked like a three-year old had liberally sprinkled the 3D display with dots of various colors, with no respect for coordination or color matching. The region around Jupiter was filled with angry red dots and a handful of green. Pluto was the reverse. Near Neptune, the balance was mostly pale dots of both colors, only a handful of active ships could be seen. Athena’s eyes were immediately drawn to Mars and Earth on the plots. When she saw that there was no fighting around either planet, she relaxed minutely. Earth, mankind’s birthplace, still held the largest population anywhere. In fact, there were more people on Earth than any solar system outside of Sol. Mars, on the other hand, represented another sizeable population. She flicked to the asteroid belt and the tension returned. Where there should have been a large number of colored dots, were instead a series of grey dots or flashing icons. 75% of the heavy industry in Sol was located there and it looked like the vast majority of it had been targeted. One side may have fired first, but neither looked to have much industry left in the belt.

“Sir, receiving flash traffic, standard flag-level command encryption codes. Computer is decoding.” Daniels called out. “It’s a video order sir, on-screen?”

“Yes.” Athena replied quickly. As the video flashed onto the screen, Athena immediately recognized Fleet Admiral Jake “The Jackal” Mondragon’s face, even through the bloody bandages and dirty pressure suit. His helmet sat on the arm of his command chair on the flag bridge of the heavy battleship USS
Missouri
.

“Athena, your timing is impeccable. 1
st
Fleet has been engaged with the Russian 12
th
Fleet and a Chinese Action Group. We’ve just completed our second passing engagement and took a beating, but this time we succeeded in breaking up the Russian formation. I trust you can figure out the specifics.” He glanced somewhere off screen, probably his own tactical plot. A small cloud of smoke drifted across the camera. In the background, DC teams worked on a fire in an auxiliary console, working around the support beam that had crushed it in the first place. He continued speaking, looking back at the camera.

“The Russian group should be just about out of missiles, they fired a small volley at us in our last exchange. Railguns are another matter, they just never seem to run out of rounds for those. Your group is to close and engage the Russian formation, at your tactical discretion. They’re a little spread out, but I trust you can handle that little tactical complication.” He smiled into the camera. “You do always love these unorthodox situations. The Chinese Action Group is all but dead in space. They were the survivors of the five Chinese Fleets that nailed Alpha Gate.” His smile disappeared as he though again about the 12,000 men and women lost aboard the battle station when the Chinese nukes finally made it past her defenses.

“Sir, there is a second layer encryption, Captain’s Eyes Only.” Daniels said.

Athena typed in her personal code and listened to the rest of Mondragon’s message.

“Captain, I know that fleet has a lot of hurt left in it, but we need to get this situation under control. You have the only uncommitted forces in Sol, or anywhere near Sol for that matter. Your force certainly isn’t disposable, but if you take a big portion of that fleet out, 1
st
Fleet can finish them. I need you to do as much damage as possible, without regard for your own losses. This is a shit assignment to hand you, Captain, but it has to be done. Almost a thousand ships have already been lost in this system, this is the climactic battle and whoever wins this will be in the strongest position from here on out. Let’s get to work, Captain. Mondragon out.” Athena took a quiet deep breathe, formulating the beginnings of a plan. This one wasn’t going to help her sleep at night.

“Conway, plot an FTL to put us within 10000 km of the nearest ship, pass it along to the gunboats.” Athena ordered.

“Yes sir.”

Athena looked at the plot. A full strength Russian fleet typically comprised of a fleet carrier, heavy battleship, two battleships, three battlecruisers, eight cruisers, eight destroyers, sixteen to twenty frigates, and around two dozen corvettes. The Russians preferred the slightly larger corvettes over the more American gunboats because it allowed them to support a heavier (and more useful) kinetic armament. 12
th
Fleet had clearly taken a beating, with all of her cruisers destroyed outright or running straight and dead. Athena also couldn’t see the fleet carrier anywhere on screen, meaning it had probably been completely destroyed. The tags on the display indicated that the heavy battleship
Romanov
was still at the center of the group, but the formation had clearly degraded and was no longer a cohesive point defense unit. The two heavily damaged surviving battlecruisers were in formation with the relatively undamaged
Romanov
, with the battleship
Rurik
trailing just behind. All indications were that the
Rurik
was minimally effective. No more than six frigates remained, all in rough shape. The corvettes were even worse off, with ten still maneuvering and under power, but none were undamaged. It didn’t take a lot of damage to put a corvette out of service, so Athena could only hope that those ships would be easily knocked out.

She also noted the three undamaged destroyers of a flanking group off the
Rurik
’s port lower stern and the two damaged ones holding a similar formation above her. They were in the FTL Guard position, staying close enough to the wounded battleship so as to discourage an enemy from jumping in close. This was accomplished by staying within the rough circular error of probability (CEP) of modern military-grade FTL drives, about 500 km.

“Daniels, connect me to
Fort Worth
.”

“Go ahead sir.”

“Weklar.” Athena said.

“I’m here.” He responded.

“New plan.”

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

“Coming out of the jump in two, one.” Masters eased off the FTL and switched back to normal space control. He put
Tripoli
into a tight spiraling maneuver as soon as they exited the jump, the gunboats following in a rough formation and close astern. Weapons fire was immediate, having telegraphed their position with the ten second FTL.
Tripoli
continued to bore in, defending herself, but withholding her missiles. Any fired now would just get picked off by the Russian point defense, even if it wasn’t unified. The only way any missiles were getting through was if the gunboats emerged from behind
Tripoli
and fired all together, saturating the already weakened point defense of the Russian fleet. Instead,
Tripoli
just bore all the Russians could dish out and kept driving on the group.

“They’re repositioning sir, trying to move for shots on our drives and the gunboats.” Johnson said.

“Acknowledged.” Athena responded but ordered no change.

“Hull breach, Decks A and B, Frames 0 through 12.” Master Chief Brown’s voice came over the speakers and into CIC. “Hull breach, C and D decks, frames 9 to 20, they re-opened that same hole sir. Primary repulsors are out across the bow, secondary repulsors are handling the load for now. Tertiary systems are online and operating normally.”

“Enemy fire is working along our topside and the port side sir.” Johnson called out another report, considerably more agitated as the hull breach alarms continued to signify new hull breaches. The CIC DC console and display was beginning to have more reds and oranges than greens as breaches opened up along most of the topside.

Not good.

“Topside Turret Number 2 is offline, direct hit on the ring mount. DC parties are enroute. No word on casualties yet.” Brown said hurriedly over the comm before barking more orders across his control station to the operators in DC I.

“Hornet 11 just took a direct hit. She’s gone sir.” Johnson reported somberly.

“Steady as she goes.” Athena said soothingly to Ensign Masters as he fidgeted in his helmsman’s chair. Athena also noted that several of the others in CIC were starting to shift nervously as well. They had closed to within 1000 km now and the enemy would be able to englobe
Tripoli
and her gunboats soon. That would be a losing engagement for any command. Athena flipped her comm back on, Daniels having the link set-up since before they jumped to FTL.

“Full House.” She said simply into the comm before closing the link. Daniels dutifully switched the comm link to the assembled gunboats.

“Straight Flush.” Athena often used poker names for her more, unorthodox, plans.

The hornets broke off in a seemingly random series of corkscrewing courses, crisscrossing each other and creating a dizzying intercept geometry, even for a computer. They had divided into three groups of four and a group of three, diving out for their targets. The first two groups abruptly turned in their flight paths, angling and firing off a full volley of missiles at the destroyers guarding
Rurik
. The lower group of destroyers instantly honored the threat, linking their point defense together. The gunboats that had volleyed at them continued to engage them with railguns.