Alarm of War, Book II: The Other Side of Fear (52 page)

The H.M.S.
Vengeance,
the Victorian’s newest battleship, fired sixty missiles in return.  It’s crew, still new to the Dominion control systems, fumbled for a gut-wrenching moment to get the laser batteries on line, then began to pepper the oncoming destroyers with ten and twelve-inch lasers.

Emily’s six destroyers darted forward, each volleying its missiles, then concentrating all of their lasers on two specific Duck destroyers.  The Assault Force’s only Hedgehog swept forward with them, already targeting incoming missiles.

The four Victorian cruisers concentrated all of their eighty missiles against the fort to the left of the MOP Works, then accelerated in to blast it with laser strikes while reloading their second volley.

The four carriers –
Rabat, Haifa, Rishon and Ashdod –
split up, with
Rabat
and
Haifa
diving below the plane of advance so that they would be looking ‘up’ at the MOP Works and the
Rishon
and
Ashdod
climbing up so that they would be looking ‘down’ at it.  Inside the carriers a total of three hundred gunboats waited for the order to launch.  Many of the crews were new and untried, and they sat in their gunships, stomachs clenched with anxiety, bile in their throats.

More than two hundred and forty missiles passed each other in flight, their guidance systems trying desperately to parse through chaff and jammers and lock onto the real targets.  The Victorian missiles had the benefit of numerous recon drones beaming them real-time data on both the destroyers and the fort on the left, which everyone had decided to call the “Alamo.”

The Victorian Hedgehog burst into action, shooting hundreds of laser beams and dozens of small anti-missile missiles against the incoming flock of Dominion missiles.  Three minutes later the surviving missiles on either side reached their targets.  One of the Victorian destroyers seemed to pause mid-flight, then shuddered and tumbled.  Life pods popped out from all sides as the crew hastily evacuated the stricken ship.  Three other Victorians destroyers took hits but continued forward, damage control teams racing to put out fires and temporarily seal hull breaches.

The Dominion ships were fewer in number and had more missiles and lasers aimed at them.  One of them was already heavily damaged by laser strikes which knocked out its anti-missile system.  Naked before the incoming missiles, its crew was in the midst of abandoning ship when the missiles struck.  It fireballed, killing all of the crew still onboard and incinerating several of the life pods attempting to flee.

Two other Dominion destroyers were crippled, tumbling and turning as internal explosions tore them apart.  Of the remaining nine, six took hits but stayed in the fight.  One of the unharmed destroyers, its captain succumbing to panic, abruptly turned and ran, trailing chaff and decoys.

On the left flank of the battle, missiles from the four Victorian cruisers closed in on the Alamo, but the Alamo’s strong anti-missile system began knocking them down, one by one and two by two, then three by three.  Ten of the eighty missiles fell, then fifteen, then thirty, then fifty.  Of the original eighty, only fifteen reached their target, and of those only five successfully breached the hull.  The fort was hurt, but not crippled, and it began to pour out a steady stream of missiles and lasers at the incoming Victorians.

“Press on!” Emily commed to the ship captains.  If her ships could punch through the Dominion destroyers, they would be so close to the MOP Works that the forts wouldn’t dare fire on them for fear of accidently hitting their precious shipyard.  She glanced anxiously at the sensor display and the battle hologram.  Where
were
they?  Had she misjudged the whole thing?

Then everything changed.  For the worse.

One moment there were three Dominion forts and the MOP Works struggling to hold their own, and the next moment twenty-eight Dominion warships were boiling out of the sensor shadow behind each of the forts and the MOP Works to join the fight. 

“Multiple contacts!  Multiple contacts!” Master Chief Gibson shouted.  “We have twenty additional destroyers and what looks like eight frigates.  The frigates are coming from the rear-most fort.  Seven destroyers from the left fort, seven from the right fort and six coming from behind the MOP Works.  All the destroyers are in missile and energy range; frigates will be in range in six minutes.”

Emily recalled the earlier recon estimates of the total forces guarding Timor.  She allowed herself a surge of satisfaction.  The Dominion Admiral had screwed up – this ambush had left him with only twenty or so ships to guard the planet.

Finite resources,
she thought to herself. 
We all have to make do with finite resources.
  The trick was in exploiting your enemy’s finite resources while not allowing your own to make you vulnerable.

“Download the sensor update and send the communication drones!” she ordered.  Then, “Toby, connect me to all ships!”  Across the Command Center he punched some buttons and then nodded to her.  “All ships!  All ships!  Disengage now!  Disengage now and proceed to the planet!  Orders to the carriers: launch all gunboats to cover the warships.”

As the Dominion destroyers and frigates raced forward, all of the Victorian cruisers, destroyers and carriers abruptly turned away, Dark Matter Brakes flaring, and dove towards the planet.  The Hedgehog, named the
Lochaber Axe
, fell in with the rear line of the retreating ships and began to shoot down incoming Dominion missiles.  Other ships dumped chaff and mines.  Tasting blood, the Dominion forces accelerated further.

* * * *

On the Dominion battleship
Fortitude
orbiting the planet Timor, Admiral Kaeser frowned in confusion.  The trap had been sprung and the Vickies were running, but why were they running
towards
him?   No matter.  He began issuing orders, getting the planet-side missile batteries and his remaining Fleet ready to fire if the Vickies came within range.    He paused, nodding slowly to himself.  His plan was working well so far.

So why did he feel uneasy?

* * * *

The Dominion destroyers began to outpace the cruisers and brought the Victorian ships into missile range first.  There was, fortunately, no concentrated volley of missiles, so
Lochaber Axe
was able to knock down the incoming missiles without difficulty.  Then the grogin gunboats flashed in to swarm the two leading destroyers, blanketing them with missile and laser strikes.  The destroyers abruptly jinked and veered away, holed in numerous places by laser fire and missile strikes.  Four more destroyers that had been overtaking the Victorian ships prudently powered back to let the other Dominion warships catch up.

“Thirty second countdown has commenced,” Mildred announced calmly, but loud enough to pierce through the noise on the Command Center.  “Twenty-seven…twenty-six…”

“Carriers to start recovering the gunboats!” Emily said into the comm.  “All gunboats to be aboard.  If a carrier is not available, land in the shuttle bay of the nearest ship!”

“Twenty-two...twenty-one…”

“Within missile range of the planet’s defense envelop in sixty seconds!” Master Chief Gibson said loudly.  “Dominions continue to overtake us from behind.  Within their missile range in forty seconds!”

On the holo display there was a ripple of pulsing lights that indicated mine explosions.  “The Ducks ran into the minefield!” Rudd exulted.  He tapped his keyboard for a moment, leaning closer to peer at the data display.  “We got one for sure and may have damaged some others.”  On the holo display, one red square suddenly flared and disappeared while two others veered left and right and seemed to slow down.

“Ten…nine…eight…”

“Prepare for DMB and flip up,” Emily broadcast.

On the Dominion ship
Fortitude,
Admiral Kaeser watched in growing wonderment as the Victorian raiders hurtled directly at him.  He shook his head.  What were they trying to do?  In a few seconds they would be vulnerable to fire from the planet, from his orbiting ships and from the Dominion warships chasing them. Were they mad?

“Two…one…”

“All ships, tilt up and full military power!” Emily commanded.  Almost as one, the Assault Force turned away from the planet and went to full power.  Their curve took them on a path skimming just beyond the missile range of the planetary defenses and just beyond the reach of Admiral Kaeser’s orbiting forces.  Then the Victorian ships executed another turn, leveling off and taking them further away from the pursuing Dominion destroyers and frigates.  The pursuing ships were all in a line now, bunched together, doggedly staying on the heels of the Victorians, moments away from launching another missile volley.

“Countdown commencing,” intoned Mildred.  “Fifteen…fourteen…thirteen…”

And from two hundred thousand miles above them, far beyond the reach of any sensors, came a flight of shooting stars.  They arced across the sky, huge cauldrons of heat and light and frothing energy.  In a few moments anyone with a sensor, or even a porthole, could see them as they hurtled toward the combatants.   Strangely, as they came closer instead of speeding up they appeared to be visibly slowing down.  But the more they slowed, the greater the penumbra of heat and light that trailed them like swirling comet tails filled with Icterine yellow, Palatinate blue, green the color of a Caribbean sea, and Carnelian red.  They were so brilliant that on the
Fortitude
Admiral Kaeser could easily see them with his naked eye.  The spectacle was breathtakingly, astonishingly beautiful, and he knew he would never see the likes of it again.  They seemed to fill the sky, as numerous as the stars themselves, but from his vantage point on the
Fortitude,
Admiral Kaeser could see that in fact there were only forty or so.             

“Dark Matter Brakes,” he muttered foully.

The Victorian Fleet had arrived.

“Four…three…two…one,” Mildred counted down.

The thirty-nine ships of Admiral Alyce Douthat’s Fleet swept in behind the remaining thirty-one Dominion destroyers and frigates, still dumping speed so as to not overrun them.   In front of the Dominion ships, Emily’s task force flipped over to point their bow weapons at the Ducks.  And in that instant, the odds shifted from thirty-one confident Dominion warships attacking fourteen Victorian ships to fifty-four Victorian ships – including two battleships – attacking thirty-one very nervous Ducks.

The threat sensors on every Dominion ship blared their warning as targeting sensors locked onto them.  Thirty-one captains cringed at what must follow.

But the dreadful onslaught of missiles and lasers did not come.  Instead, the comm screens on each of the destroyers and frigates suddenly showed a short, stout dark-haired woman wearing the uniform of an admiral in the Victorian Fleet.  She scowled at them.

“My name is Admiral Alyce Douthat,” she said in a voice like gravel in a cement mixer.  “Each of you has exactly five minutes to decide whether you will live or die.  You will immediately turn off your sensors.  Any ship still showing sensors will be destroyed.  You will bring your ship to relative zero velocity and abandon ship using your shuttles and life pods.  You will not scramble your computers.  You will not activate any self-destruct device.  When you abandon your ship, proceed to the planet surface.  You will not be interfered with.

Admiral Douthat’s eyes hardened.  “Disregard this order and you will be destroyed without further warning.  You have five minutes, starting now.”

The face on the screen vanished and was replaced by a clock ticking down from five minutes.

For several long seconds, nothing at all happened.  All of the ships continued at the same speed.  The Dominions kept on their power and their targeting sensors, but they did not fire.

“Lots of chatter on the Ducks’ comm frequencies,” Toby Partridge said softly, holding headphone to one ear.  “Mildred has decrypted some of it and they appear to be arguing about whether or not to fight or surrender.”

Emily nodded, trying hard not to hold her breath.  She jumped a little when her comm flared to life.  Admiral Douthat nodded to her.  “Glad to see you made it, Tuttle, and nice job snatching the Duck battleship.”

Emily nodded back.  “What can I do for you, Admiral?”

“Let’s give the Ducks a little more to worry about.  Scramble all the gunboats and have them take position on the flanks.  Douthat, out.”  The comm blinked off.                A minute later the gunboats poured out of the four carriers and moved in squadrons along the flanks of the Dominion destroyers and frigates. 

Perhaps the Dominion captains had already decided, or maybe the image of 300 gunboats swarming out of the carriers made the difference, but whatever it was, the Dominion captains began to shut down their sensors and reduce speed, one by one, until there were only four destroyers left.  They didn’t even fire their missiles, they just stubbornly refused to come to a stop and kill their targeting sensors.

On board the
Lionheart,
Admiral Douthat shook her head and sighed, then nodded once to Captain Eder. Several dozen ten-inch laser beams lashed out.  Sixty missiles followed.  The destroyers died with no life pods or shuttles escaping.