A Deep Sleep (Valhalla Book 1) (24 page)

“I apologize, sir, but I don’t believe we’ve had the pleasure.” Qiang said. One always had to be careful when talking to civilians, you could never tell how important they were just by looking at them.

“Ahh, of course not. Where are my manners?” He said and while Qiang suspected he was being humorous, his voice combined with the thin grin on his face did nothing but ice the blood in Qiang’s veins. “I am Minister Tong Ming.”

“Sir!” Qiang snapped to attention for a ranking member of the Party Committee.

“Yes, yes. Your loyalty is noted.” Ming waved his salute away. “You will also note that Min and his aide are currently in my custody, placed under house arrest. Bear that in mind as well. Good luck, Grand Admiral.” He departed and left. Qiang didn’t miss his meaning. Min was a hostage, ensuring Qiang’s loyalty. Also, one did not receive a meeting from the Minister of State Security lightly. It told him two things; first, that he was considered a capable commander and second, they didn’t truly trust his ‘loyalty’. That was an uncomfortable feeling. He thought of Min’s last warning. He would have to take that to heart.

Mu Cassiopeia system

DSF-1: USS
Tripoli

Athena was pleased. The Mu system had possessed a single, small battlestation and just six fighter-bombers. The squadron had clearly been some sort of reserve or training squadron. None of the pilots had demonstrated the skill of those in the first system. DSF-1 hadn’t even suffered a scratch to eliminate them and wipe the system of industrial utility. Overall, they still had 50% munitions loads, at least for the ships she still had. The mission hadn’t been cheap thus far, and Athena suspected they weren’t nearly done. She had started with 36 gunboats, she now had just 20. Of those, two were barely operational and she had docked them with
Tripoli
to help speed emergency repairs. She also had varying degree of damage to all of her ships, including some substantial damages to Tripoli herself. The COB had assured her again that he’d do everything he could to get them back into fighting trim. Still, she knew, the mission had been crucial. The damage they had done to the Chinese war effort would be devastating once its full effects were felt.

“Daniels, set-up a virtual meeting with the other captains. I’ll take it in my day cabin in twenty minutes.” Athena said as she rose. “Lieutenant Heath, you have CIC.”

“Aye sir.”

“I have CIC, aye.” Heath responded as he moved to take the command chair. Athena strode aft and into her day cabin.

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“Thank you all for joining me.” Athena began twenty minutes later. “We have completed our mission for Admiral Mondragon. Our only mission now is to ourselves and our crews. We need a plan for getting back to friendly space. I’ll open the floor for discussion.”

“We could FTL it straight home, the Sol.” Captain Dawes said.

“That’s a four month journey.” Protested one of the gunboat captains.

“It’s 100 days at max FTL.” Defended Dawes.

“You know we won’t be able to sustain that, not with the damage we’ve sustained. They’ll be breakdowns and the harder we push, the worse they’ll be. Four months is generous.” Another gunboat captain chimed in. Athena wasn’t surprised that the gunboat captains objected to a sprint across open space. They were aggressive by nature, not to mention not well suited for long. high-FTL runs.

“The way I see it, we only have one real option.” Martin spoke up. “We back track hot and fast, sprinting through whatever we find, absorb the damage we have to and get home.”

“Amen” The first gunboat captain said, followed by a chorus of the rest of the gunboat captains.

“We’ll sustain significant casualties.” Captain Elsa Snyder of
Normandy
said thoughtfully. “But on the other hand, we have all large ships designed for just that sort of thing. Charge the guns, soak up fire. We also should remember that time is of the essence. Most of the Navy was in a fight to the death when we started on this mission. How much survived? We may be the biggest uncommitted force left for the Navy. They need us and they need us now.”

That seemed to sway even Dawes. Athena decided it was time to enter the melee.

“I am inclined to agree with the scalded dog approach.” Athena said with some humor. She got a few chuckles from the gunboat captains. “But perhaps a bit more refinement would be a good idea. We should be able to FTL across most of the inter gate distances, but we’ll have relatively predictable drop out points if that’s all we do. I’d like to put together a series of random drop-out intervals to complicate enemy maneuvers and to also gain as much intel as possible as we pass through the system.”

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“Coming up on 0.35C.” Ensign Masters reported calmly.

“Very well. Prepare for slip gate entry.” Athena ordered.

“Slip gate entry in twenty seconds.” Ensign Conway called out. He passed the required data to Ensign Masters.

“All hands, slip gate entry in ten seconds.” Daniels announced on fleet-wide.

“Entry.” Conway announced. A half beat later he spoke again. “Exiting now.”

“Yankee search.” Athena ordered as
Tripoli
emerged into the Eta Cassiopeia system.

“Yankee search, aye.” Johnson responded immediately. The ship was at full power, so this time the lights didn’t even dim. “Contacts, six civilian ships. Looks like system freight shuttles and short haul mining ships.”

“Lieutenant Heath, give me a firing solution but hold on firing for now. We’ll see how this goes.” Athena said carefully. Technically, she could fire on them since they were valid industrial targets, but she didn’t feel the need. Most of them had no slip gate drives and all of their industrial capacity for this system was gone. They were of no use to the Chinese war effort now.

“Contact!” Johnson called out. “Chinese corvette, just lit up his drives and went buster. FTL field forming, jump. They’re headed for the alpha slip gate sir. Fast response gunboats are on intercept course, going to FTL. They’ve jumped as well.” Johnson finished.

“Interception geometry?” Athena asked, though she suspected the answer.

“No chance sir, they don’t have the angle.” Conway said, shaking his head as he did so. Athena could barely see the gesture with his helmet on.

“Damn, picket boat.” Heath said.

“Not much to be done about it.” Athena said with a shrug, something even less effective in a pressure suit than a head shake. “Send a message to the gunboats to cease pursuit. The rest of the fleet will jump to 60C and the gunboats will join us as we pass. Ensign Conway, plot us a dog leg maneuver to at least put us a little off the course they’ll be expecting us on.” Athena received a chorus of confirmations.

The journey across the system took much less time than when they had first been here. The dog leg maneuver that Athena had ordered placed DSF-1 nearly a million kilometers from where they would have entered the slip gate when the pickets had last seen the fleet. Athena hoped that would be enough.

“Sound general quarters. Point defense weapons free once we’re through the gate, but hold all offensive.” Athena ordered as they dropped out of FTL and prepared for the last minute to the gate. She looked at the 3D tactical projection all the way into the gate.

As
Tripoli
emerged into the VVS-2 system, the familiar process repeated itself.

“Yankee Search.”

“Aye, sir.” Johnson responded. “Contacts, classify as enemy warships. I have at least twenty within three million kilometers.”

“Quick and dirty classification.” Athena ordered, wanting the types and not their specific class.

“Quick and dirty, aye.” Johnson adjusted the data on her screen. “Two cruisers, one light carrier, eight destroyers, and nine corvettes. They are in two groups astride our original path so the first group is within one million kilometers, group two is just over two point five million kilometers.”

“Also, getting fuzzy returns from the region where those corvettes should have come through.”

“Corvette disintegrate after emerging?” Heath inquired.

“I don’t think so…”Johnson stared hard at her screen and manipulated her controls and filters. “Mines, sir. I think they dropped mines.”

“That would have been unfortunate.” Heath commented blandly.

“Status of fleet FTL?” Athena asked.

“The gunboats are recharging, but the two gunboats with damaged energy banks have almost nothing left. We need twenty-five minutes to achieve enough energy for a full FTL run across the system.” Daniels reported. “And if we do that, we’ll have to wait while those same gunboats recharge to use the slip gate. We’re delayed no matter what Admiral.”

“Short jump, 30C until we’re a third of the way to the gate.” Athena ordered. “Johnson, velocities of the two fleets?”

“Group one is at a near standstill, group two has a small amount of velocity away from us but was already decelerating when we transitioned. It looks like they were going for a full stop relative to the gate.”

“So that no matter our exit vector they could FTL to us or in front of us.” Heath surmised.

“But it also means they’ll have very short engagement windows. They’ll have to fire everything in a large volley or two and hope they can get close enough to make us fight out the volley.” Athena noted.

“Yes sir. They’ll be cutting it awful tight that way, not to mention exposing themselves to a lot of return fire to do it.”

“True, but they’re probably assuming we don’t have much left in the way of missiles.” Athena said.

“They’re not far off.” Heath said sourly.

“They’ll have to build some velocity now to catch us, so we’ll use that to our advantage.” Athena considered their position for a moment. “Daniels, connect me with the two damaged gunboats.”

“Connected, sir.” Daniels responded a moment later. Athena checked who commanded the two gunboats in question.

“Gentlemen, I understand you’re having some recharge issues.” Athena said light heartedly.

“Aye Admiral, we are.” The first said.

“Just trying to make things more interesting, sir.” The second added.

“Well let’s make things even more interesting, shall we?” Athena said. Those looking at her in CIC couldn’t help but notice she had that mischievous look again. Daniels and Heath exchanged a look. Things were about to get interesting.

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“Ready to execute first FTL jump, sir.” Conway reported.

“Signal the fleet to jump.” Athena ordered.

“Aye.” Daniels said. “Gunboats are jumping, all other ships to follow.”

“Powering up, board is green.” Masters called out.

“Sir, two gunboats failed to jump, they’ve fallen out of formation. I’m getting energy spikes.” Johnson reported, working her sensor feeds rapidly. “They’re telegraphing their position.”

“Very well.” Athena responded calmly. “We will hold until they are ready to jump. Send the rest of the fleet after the gunboats who jumped successfully.”

“Aye sir. Captain Martin has assumed temporary command.” Daniels said. She paused for a moment, listening to the latest message. “Both gunboats are reporting restoration of jump control. They are executing now.”

“Preparing to jump.” Masters said once again.

“First gunboat away, second gunboat…failure to jump.” Johnson reported, sounding almost like she was genuinely worried about the failure to jump.

“Daniels, please transmit Order Alpha One to Captain Noble.” Athena said, just as calmly as before.

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Aboard the Hornet-type gunboat, her main engines still streaming low-energy plasma, Lieutenant William Noble looked his command over one last time. He knew this order was coming, he’d been briefed on what was to be done. Hell, he even agreed that it was the best course of action. That didn’t make it any easier for him to turn to his communications officer and give his final order as captain of the Hornet that his crew had unofficially named Piccadilly Lilly. Gunboat crews traditionally gave their ships unofficial names and Noble approved of the practice.

“Janet, it’s time. Abandon ship. Quick and orderly.” Noble said. Gunboat captains were typically less formal, at least in CIC.

“You got it boss.” She responded. “All hands, abandon ship, abandon ship. This is not a drill. Report to evacuation stations. Abandon ship, abandon ship.”

“That means us too people.” Noble ordered softly. Ensign Janet Myers at comms, as well as the ensigns manning tactical, sensors, and maneuvering stood and made their way aft out of the small compartment. After a last moment of hesitation, Noble followed his people.

“Captain Noble reports evacuation complete.” Daniels reported. “The hanger deck reports that they are receiving life pods now. Estimate ten minutes to complete recovery operation.”

“Any possibility our friends detected our little evac?” Athena asked Johnson at Sensors.

“No sir. Everything stayed low power, no sub-space ripples. If we didn’t have optics on it, I doubt we’d know ourselves.” She responded quickly. Athena nodded her assent, expecting to hear just that.

“Status of the gunboat?” Athena asked.

“Captain Noble reports that everything is set, his engineering and maneuvering team have completed the required modifications and safety overrides. The Marine contingent has also finished their portion of the operation and has left the gunboat.” Daniels finished her report.

“Then let’s get out of here. Conway, coordinate with Masters, I don’t want that gunboat left behind.” Athena said firmly.

“Aye sir, coordinating with Helm.” He responded.

In accordance with the pre-programmed orders and an initiation signal, Piccadilly Lilly formed up on
Tripoli
and the two of them smoothly jumped to FTL in pursuit of the rest of the group.

Athena used the transit time, once again, to rest the crew. Everyone was cycled off watch and ordered to sleep for at least two of the three hours they had off watch, preferably all of it. Athena made sure both herself and Sanders followed that particular portion. It seemed that the higher in rank one was, the harder it became to truly stop and sleep.

While the time off hadn’t completely refreshed everyone, they had broken the streak of running on stims and caffeine, allowing some of the brittle tension in CIC to be relieved. Athena would need everyone as sharp as possible for the next step in the plan.

“Change in behavior from both trailing Chinese groups, sir.” Johnson piped up. Athena took a second to glance at the time. They had been at GQ for just over twenty minutes. The timing had apparently been just about perfect on that count.

“What are they up to?” Athena prompted Johnson to continue.

“Increase in relative FTL speed, sir. Looks like they want to close the gap. They have to know that we’re running slowly and the gunboat is trailing substantial radiation leakage. Based on our own estimates, if the gunboat had really sustained that kind of damage, the crew would be nearing a compromised state due to radiation exposure and poor containment. They know we’re going to have to stop.”

“Well let’s just oblige them. Signal the group, drop out according to plan.” Athena ordered.

DSF-1 dropped out of FTL, almost halfway between their entry point and their intended exit slip gate.
Tripoli
and her attendant wounded gunboat arrived several minutes after the main group, but fell into a position at the extreme rear of the formation as they did.

“We are at position Omega, sir.” Johnson reported.

“Ship set to station-keeping.” Masters reported.

“Status on group one and two?” Athena asked.

“They are converging on our position, 20x light. They were maintaining separation and matching our speed, but now that we dropped out well short of the slip gate, I guess they decided to move in and engage. The separation between the two groups is dwindling rapidly sir.” Johnson reported.

“Time until Delta point?”

“Thirty-three minutes, fourteen seconds.” Johnson said.

The time passed slowly. Athena steeled herself, slowly sipping at her coffee and studying the details of the plan she had already written out and distributed her select orders to each ship and to each relevant station in CIC. She didn’t really need to review the plan, she had written it after all, but she did need to remain serene looking for all of those in CIC. She had to be the rock, even if at her core she wasn’t sure she would find anything but a pillar of sand.

“Chinese groups have merged, re-designating as Group 3.” Johnson reported.

“Execute phase one.” Athena ordered.

“Sending command.” Heath responded.

Athena watched the tactical display as the previously troubled gunboat assumed a rearguard slot in the formation. The entire group began powering their FTL to continue the jump.

“They’ve definitely detected our FTL by now sir.” Johnson spoke up to report again.

“Five seconds.” Heath said.

Athena merely nodded. She had shed her pressure suit’s helmet. Regulation said she should have it on, but she just couldn’t bring herself to go back into the suit. The rest of her bridge crew were similarly situated, helmets off but nearby. Unfortunately now was the time to put them back on.

“Alright people, time to get cozy with ourselves. Helmets on.” Athena said as casually as she could.

“Initializing FTL.” Heath reported. Ensign Masters always announced when
Tripoli
engaged her own FTL, but this time
Tripoli
was only charging her FTL but not engaging it.

“Energy spike.” Johnson reported. “Sensors from multiple ships confirm the gunboat FTL is overloading.”

“Attention all hands, brace for shock event.” Athena personally announced over 1MC.

“Sir, hanger deck reports the packages are in place and all Marines are back inside. Red deck and clearance to maneuver has been received from the COB.” Daniels reported, indicating that all shuttles and personnel were back inside and everything was secured for combat in the hanger.

“Gunboat FTL going critical in two, one…” Heath announced. The holo-display flared as the gunboat detonated.

“Phase two.” Athena ordered.

“Phase two, aye.” Several said from around CIC. This part was pre-planned and Athena had no further orders to give for several minutes.
Tripoli
powered down her FTL and wheeled about. By this time, the shock wave from the gunboat’s exploding FTL had reached them. The entire ship rocked from the force of the explosion and the tactical display went completely blank, both the optical and FTL sensors blinded by the blast.

“Sensor drones coming online now, sir.” Johnson reported as the tactical display began to display longer ranged data again. The Chinese group could be seen sprinting towards the group, their course unchanged but their speed had increased. “Chinese group has pushed themselves to emergency, sir. They seem to have been fooled.”

“Hoping to catch us before our sensors recover.” Athena said wryly. “Too bad they don’t know that we had other things in mind.”

“Bad for them, good for us.” Heath remarked.

“Indeed it is.” Athena said.

The gunboat had been rigged so that the FTL breach was timed with shaped charges within the containment structure. As a result, the vast majority of the subspace disturbance and exotic energy was directed towards the Chinese instead of a spherical detonation. A spherical detonation would have inevitably overloaded the fleet’s FTL, forcing a restart of all their drives. This was the window the Chinese were looking to use to their advantage. Athena was going to turn that on them.

“Chinese group will be to their standard drop-out point for an engagement in two minutes. We will emerge from the disruption in three minutes.” Johnson interjected.

“Time until the Chinese reach the disruption after assumed drop-out?” Athena asked.

“Five minutes, sir.” Johnson responded. “This still is within the parameters of the attack profile.”

“Targeting profiles shared on the net and I have confirmations of receipt from all ships.” Heath reported.

Athena continued to watch the tactical display, mentally counting down the minutes.

“Group Three dropping out, they’re subluminal.” Johnson quickly reported.

“Targeting profiles locked in. Targets apportioned and all ships have fed their targets into their missiles.” Heath said fifteen seconds later.

“All ships have weapons launch authority. Weapons free.” Athena snapped out.

“Emerging from the disturbance.” Johnson called out. “Sensors clearing up.”

“Firing sequence has begun.” Heath’s statement was punctuated by
Tripoli
’s missiles tubes firing. Athena watched as the entire group launched on the unsuspecting Chinese group. The Chinese admiral had his ships arrayed in optimal position for a missile attack, expecting to come upon a disarrayed American fleet, still reeling and unable to jump away because of the exotic radiation that results from a catastrophic failure of an FTL-drive.

“Tracking outbound missile salvo.” Johnson reported almost immediately.

“Firing sequence complete.” Heath reported after a minute.

“They’re maneuvering.” Johnson reported.

Athena watched as the Chinese group reacted to the somewhat undersized missile salvo Athena had sent at them, totaling a mere thirty missiles. The cruisers moved forward, taking up the center of the line and allowing the corvettes to fall back into a supporting position. The carrier dropped all the way to the aft of the formation. The destroyers arrayed themselves around the periphery to support the cruisers.

“Chinese are in their point defense formation. I’ve got several defensive scanning radars and targeting radars.” Johnson reported crisply.

“Phase three.” Athena said.

“Gunboats one through four are executing a quick jump sequence.” Daniels said as the gunboat captains confirmed the phase three order.

The gunboats of the reformed 1
st
Squadron leapt forward, quickly flanking the Chinese formation. They had not fired their large ship-killers in the initial salvo, they were hunting more specific a target. The light carrier had in her hanger fourteen deadly fighter-bombers, each loaded for anti-ship. Because fighter-bombers were lethal but fragile, they were held inside the carrier until after the missile salvo was dealt with per standard tactical doctrine. Now 1
st
Squadron aimed to prevent their launch from even taking place.

The gunboats emerged from subspace on the extreme flanks. Because DSF-1 had only acquired a small amount of delta-v, the gunboats were able to immediately execute a burn and thrust into the Chinese formation. Not expecting the maneuver, the Chinese commander couldn’t respond in time.

“Tallyho, one light carrier.” Called out Hornet 1’s tactical officer.

“Fire.” Her captain ordered with a feral edge.

As one, all four gunboats fired all four of their missiles. The carrier’s death was quick and violent, her fighter-bombers never escaping their launch bays. Their job complete, the squadron firewalled their engines and thrusted away.

“Gunboats have neutralized the carrier.” Johnson reported. “Missiles are entering Chinese terminal point defense range.”

The surviving missiles closed quickly with the Chinese force. The salvo had been paired down to a mere six missiles. Two of these closed to detonation range. The first achieved light damage across the bow of one cruiser. The second managed to get within 30 meters of a destroyer, its position on the outermost edge of the Chinese force giving it the weakest point defense was compounded with the partial blinding of the sensors because of the first detonation. The explosion overwhelmed the deflectors and wrecked the destroyer’s systems and caused multiple hull breaches. Secondary explosions ripped her apart.

“Vampire, vampire!” Johnson said quickly. “Single salvo, thirty-eight inbounds. All looking like heavyweight anti-ship missiles.”

“Point defense free.” Athena said. Now it was their turn to ride out a missile salvo.

The Chinese missiles closed and were also whittled down by point defense. One missile managed to blot a gunboat from space and a second bathed
Normandy
with enough radiation to cause minor damage to her keel-mounted sensors and point defenses. Overall Athena was satisfied with their defense.

“Closing to railgun range.” Heath announced. “Tracking targets.”

“Phase four.” Athena snapped out, kicking herself for the anxious tone she could detect. Her bridge crew didn’t notice.

“Railguns firing.” Heath said. “
Thunderer
is surging into the lead.”

Athena watched as Martin led his ship forward.
Thunderer
had also avoided launching on the Chinese and her missile tubes were fully primed. Now she leapt past the ACGs and bore in on the Chinese cruisers. All ten of her missile tubes spoke as one and launched five heavyweight missiles against each light cruiser. Martin punctuated the launch with a barrage from
Thunderer
’s heavy railgun.

The missiles closed on the surprised Chinese, closing the distance so quickly that point defense barely had time to reorient from the expected gun duel to missiles. The result was two direct hits on the port cruiser and a direct hit on the starboard cruiser. Direct hits in space combat were rare and so three direct hits of ten missiles was indeed long odds. The close range greatly improved the missiles’ ability to close the range.

“Scratch two cruisers.” Martin’s voice came joyfully over the comm, the radiation making his voice slightly scratchy from the proximity to his own warheads. “Did you want us to leave you anything?”