Authors: Max Feinstein
“All systems green, ready for action, ma’am,” Captain Stewart informed her after he was updated beforehand.
“Thank you Captain. Take us closer, one half thrust,” Rebeka ordered and leaned forward in her seat, “contact Frontiera Command let them know we are in system to render any assistance. Mr. Quinton what’s out there?”
“No active shipping within the system. I’m not reading any transponders from the local defense fleet,” the sensor technician said before taking a pause and quickly sitting up straighter in his seat. “Belay that! Sensors detecting
debris field in orbit around the planet. It’s NV Stanton…she’s breaking up, tracking multiple atmospheric trajectories.”
“Reset sensors and confirm reading! Bring it up on the screen,
” Rebeka ordered quickly while watching the sensor holograph update itself with new data by plotting the location and projecting the station in orbit around Frontiera.
The forward display image readjusted as well as her order was carried out. The optical systems locked onto the station’s position and zoomed towards it. Within seconds the massive kilometer long and seven hundred meter wide orbital station
was centered on the forward screen. Jacques could almost sense Rebeka’s shock and sadness as she realized that the station was now broken into many larger pieces floating loosely together within the planet’s gravitation field. Naval stations were heavily protected by redundant shielding, compartmentalized interior spaces, and multiple weapon systems making them extremely difficult to disable, much less destroy outright. Whatever had caused this calamity must have been very powerful indeed. She watched as some of the debris burned trails through the atmosphere as it tumbling towards the planet below.
“Any
evac pods?”
“Negative, ma’am, either they already landed on the planet or none launched.”
“There were thousands of people on that station,” Rebeka’s voice trailed off as she slowly looked away from the wreckage, “let us hope that at least some made it off alive.”
“What could have done that?” someone on the bridge asked quietly.
“It would have taken a whole fleet to get through its shields,” whispered another crewmember.
“Scan for any signs of weapon fire and damage among the wreckage. I want a full system wide survey. Where the heck is that defense fleet?” Rebeka questioned as she studied the wreckage once more, “have you raised FRONTCOM yet?”
“No ma’am. I’m unable to reach anyone on the planet. I’m not detecting any transmissions from the planet at all. Sensors aren’t showing any orbital satellites either. Seems like whatever happened here caused a planet wide communications failure.”
“I’m getting some strange
reading from that debris field, Commodore. DIA is unsure what to make of it. There is unknown residual radiation emanating from multiple sections, it doesn’t match anything in our database. A preliminary scan also shows signs of internal detonations.”
“Accident maybe? Or possibly sabotage?” Captain Stewart suggested as he looked back at Rebeka, his ever present smile now missing from his face. “HQ did warn us about increased
PLF and Brotherhood activity in this sector.”
“Their attacks have never gone after targets of this size,” Commodore Jonstan replied and trailed off slowly as she leaned towards the forward display, her eyes squinting at an area of space just away from the enlarging planet.
There, in the distance, some of the shining stars within the background of space faded out before becoming visible once more seconds later. Here mind was probably playing tricks on her, but Rebeka was never one to not follow through. She took over control of the electro-optical systems and adjusted the view to center it on that specific location. It only took a moment before other stars disappeared as well. Zooming in closer Rebeka began to register that the stars were going out in a linear fashion. Something very unnatural was going on.
“Long range scans detecting multiple
fields of wreckage. I’m reading four, no, make that seven separate concentrations,” the sensor station called out at the moment, “DIA is saying that the signatures match those of the
Fredriksburg
and her entire battle group!”
An adrenaline surge instant rushed through Rebeka’s body and caused her heart to quicken as she realized what had happened. “Shields full, bring weapons online! Set Condition
Red throughout. Prepare for imminent action,” Rebeka shouted out and sat up straight in her chair, “launch ready fighters and scramble the rest. I want a full spectral scan of the surrounding area! Get FRINGCOM online, inform them we have hostiles in Frontiera.”
“
Transpace comms are down!” yelled comms as he reached into a small weapons locker to pull out a small pulse pistol for defense in case of boarding, “I’m unable to send any subspace signals, ma’am. Gate controls unresponsive!”
At the same moment combat klaxons sounded throughout the ship to alert of the crew that combat should be expected at any moment. “Scan in progress
. I’m identifying two…three…four separate objects. Possible enemy contacts, but they don’t match anything we have on file. Designating them Clover One thru Four.”
The holographic display quickly updated with the new information and four new objects appeared in the empty space high above Frontiera. Each image was only compiled from
spectral readings of one side so in reality they didn’t know the complete design of the objects. From what Rebeka could see, they did not seem natural. There were barely any rough surfaces on them and their profiles were full for curved wave-like lines. If these were ships they were like nothing she had seen before.
“Razor’s report good launch. Forming up fighter screen now and awaiting reinforcements,” the Commodore heard and watched the squadron of dart shaped Cyclone interceptors race by the carrier towards the forward edge of the task group’s formation.
“Comms, transmit on all frequencies,” Rebeka ordered and crossed her arms across her chest.
“All channels open and ready Commodore.”
“To all unidentified ships, this is Commodore Rebeka Jonstan of the United Planets Federation, stand down and identify yourselves or we will open fire. I repeat, this Commodore Jonstan of the Federation to all ships within Frontiera, stan…” she never got a chance to finish her warning.
“We have
high velocity separation! Possible missiles inbound! Counting ten incoming,” warned sensors.
“We just l
ost TacNet! All comms are down. Switching to TacLink,” exclaimed another crewmember at the same time.
“Activate the Shim
mer and set SDS to autonomous. I wanted those objects tracked and destroyed if they pose a threat. Mark Clover One thru Four as hostile.” Captain Stewart ordered without a second’s though.
“All ships, this is the
Commodore, target and engage all enemy forces. Hold formation and advance,” added Commodore Jonstan as the bridge began to fill with activity.
In the forward projected view armored cover doors could be seen sliding open and through these new portals emerged a variety of different weapons. The
aging ship was going to war once more. ‘A fitting retirement,’ Rebeka softly said to herself as she watched the forward particle, plasma, and laser burst cannons move into place. Scattered between these larger guns were a few rotary gauss turrets for missile and fighter defense. There were older weapon systems, but still proved to be quiet effective in a defensive role.
At the same time, along both sides of the internal bridge, groups of Dragonfire fighters streaked past the
Federation
and accelerated to join the Cyclones already on station. Her escorts were getting ready for battle as well and Rebeka could she their thrusters flare brighter as they all picked up speed together. The two massive twin barreled gauss turrets on the heavy cruiser’s wings moved into position as well and adjusted slightly while tracking a distant target. Given that their sensors were of no use at this very moment, each heavy gun would have to rely on optical and spectral guidance in order to strike accurately. At such long ranges and without sophisticated sensor arrays each shot’s accuracy would suffer greatly.
The three other escorts had small
er gauss cannons of their own and were in the process of acquiring enemy targets as well. As in other missions they quickly linked their fire control systems together through the still active TacLink. The four current targets were split among themselves and Rebeka watched the two Ridge class frigates tilt slightly in space so that their forward facing accelerator barrels could line up with the intended target. It was then, without warning, that the four ships unleashed their first hypervelocity barrage in prefect unison. Twelve large slugs were accelerated to a fraction of the speed of light in seconds and thrown at three of the four unknown vessels. Since at such long distances even the smallest course correction could cause a miss, each projectile contained small maneuvering thrusters and was able to constantly adjust its trajectory.
“New objects emerging from hostile vessels, larger
than the first, possibly fighters or bombers.”
Rebeka saw the display slowly
change to reflect this new development. It began to show dozens of new smaller craft rushing from the four larger ships and curving around towards the
Federation
Task Group. A group of these craft actually intersected with two of the outbound hypervelocity slugs and were destroyed outright, but in turn they caused both of the projectiles to detonate. The other ten remaining slugs continued towards their respective targets. She watched as each one approached the enemy and then just before impact veered away slight into deep space. It was almost as if something had nudged them all from their trajectory onto a different course. Rebeka cursed at another failure when all of the sudden the incoming missiles disappeared from the spectral sensor array.
“I lost them ma’am! They just vanished. Wait…there they are again! New course and speed.
Updated trajectory indicates the
Federation
as the potential target, impact in ten seconds.” Warned the sensor specialist as the missiles reappeared on the holographic display.
“Interceptors away,” called out the weapons station at always the same time.
On the sensor display more objects appeared, only this time they were launched by the Federation ships themselves. Holding most of her arms for reserve the flagship carrier let the duty of missile defense fall upon her escorts. The frigates and destroyer proceeded to dispatch twenty missile interceptors among them towards the incoming threat. Through the forward display these missiles could be seen ejecting from their vertical launchers and arching forward towards their targets.
“Retarget those ships and launch
Starbursts. I want them split in two waves. Also issue weapons free to all squadrons. Engage at will, but hold within our defensive perimeter.” Rebeka instructed and monitored the situation, watching three of her four squadrons break off for battle, leaving one squadron to protect the formation from any fighters that broke through.
While all of this was going on the escort ships, under direction of the cruiser
Dao,
realigned their powerful Gauss guns and fired once more. This time they all targeted a single vessel and also staggered their shots into three synchronized volleys. These slugs were joined within seconds by a barrage of large antiship Starburst missiles from the
Dao
herself. As all of this ordinance raced through space they crossed with the enemy missiles, which instantly disappeared again only to flash back into space a second later. This time they were even closer to the task group and finally within range of its defensive weapons. Through her bridge display Rebeka watched the formation’s front line ships throw up a wall of fire from their energy and plasma emplacements as their automated defense systems activated. The incoming missiles disappeared quickly once again, but not before two of them were hit and exploded. Their sudden vanishing also caused the interceptor missiles to miss completely. Instead they all recalibrated to target the enemy fighters, which happened to be the closest threats.
Everything progressed rather quickly from that moment one. The accelerated slugs and enemy missiles struck
at almost the exact same time, but only with different results. As before the first projectiles were redirected from the targeted ship, however, that vessel also responded with beam weapons of its own for the very first time. Deep orange lances of light cut through black space and seemed to intercept most of the warheads thrown against it. On the sensor display it seemed that two of the medium caliber slugs fired from the frigates actually made it through the defensive countermeasures, but no damage, if any, was able to be detected.
On the Federation’s side of the exchange Rebeka watched the enemy missiles reappear once again, only this time there were five out of the
eight visible and DIA quickly confirmed they were all targeted at the
Federation
herself. “Reinforce forward shields and initiate evasive maneuvers!” commanded
Captain Stewart before Rebeka could say anything.
She felt the ship tilt slightly down and accelerate further as it tried to throw the missiles off when they disappeared again. As the ship maneuvered slightly out of the formations position the Commodore watched in horror as one of the heavy cruiser’s wings disintegrated. A flash of light appeared before the starboard side heavy Gauss turret
before the entire emplacement crumpled like it was made from porcelain into what seemed like a spinning singularity. The rest of the surrounding hull tore away from the ship’s superstructure as well and disappeared into the miniature black hole. To add to the destruction a large internal explosion, probably from one of the
Dao’s
projectile magazines, ripped through what remained of that section of the large ship. This force separated the outer edge of the wing from the rest of the hull and caused part of it to suck into the singularity as well just before it vanished. The damage suffered internally must have been extreme because all of the starboard side engines flickered out right after.