Solbidyum Wars Saga 7: Hunt for the Reduviids (14 page)

“By the stars, I’d not heard about that!  Is that Captain Felenna of yours holding them off?”  Regeny asked.

“Felenna and Kerabac with the
NEW ORLEANS,”
I responded, “We got word a few days ago there was a meteor swarm headed toward the planet and I sent the
NEW ORLEANS
to help destroy them before they reached Alle Bamma; we only discovered later there were Brotherhood ships hiding in that swarm.

“How’s that battle going?”  Regeny asked.

“I think we’ve won; we sent out a nuke and detonated it at the head of the swarm.  Half their ships were damaged or destroyed by the meteors blasted back at them.  The ships with RMFF capability survived but now have to face off with my ships that are equipped the RMFF penetrating torpedoes.  Last word I received is that the Brotherhood is in full retreat.

“But I’m confused by this all.  It doesn’t make any sense, the Brotherhood attacking there and at Sectors 2 and 3 at the same time.  My first thought is that one of them is a diversion, but that doesn’t make sense either, as casualties for the Brotherhood don’t seem to justify the gains.”

“Perhaps not,” Wabussie interjected, “but it would fit in with some new information we’ve received in the past two days.  Our spies are picking up intelligence that Ming and Roritat are having differences in terms of how to run the war and have divided up forces.  The two have different goals they are pursuing.  Word is that Ming has the greater control at the moment and is in charge of most of the drug production and distribution, which is where the Brotherhood gets a large percentage of their money.  Roritat needs funds and regaining Alle Bamma would provide him with the materials he needs for drugs and getting more money.”

So they’re fighting?  Good maybe they will destroy each other and save us the trouble,” I said.

“I’m afraid they are not fighting each other.  They just want things done differently.  Our intelligence indicates the two have agreed to operate separately but toward the same common goal, taking over the Federation.”

“So do you have any intelligence about what they are up to in Sectors 2 and 3?” I asked.

“They have their eyes set on Sector 2; we are sure of that.  For reasons we haven’t figured out they see Sector 2 as being critical to their plans.”

“So their activity in Sector 3 is to draw some of us off there?”

“Maybe, but we can’t be sure,” Wabussie replied.

“Slater, what are your thoughts?” I asked looking at him.

“I honestly have no idea, Tibby.  My gut tells me it’s a trap of some sort, but I can’t see how at the moment.”

“I feel the same thing,” I said, “and I don’t like it one bit.  Marranalis, get Stonbersa and Kophious on the screen for me.”

“Yes, sir.”  A moment later, Stonbersa appeared on the screen and seconds later Kophious appeared next to him as the screen split.

“Admiral,” they both said, nearly in unison.

“Gentlemen, I need your input; nothing we are seeing here is making any sense.  What can you tell me?  Stonbersa, you go first,” I said.

“Admiral, we’re seeing more and more ships on our long-range sensors and a number of asteroid-ships as well.  It’s looking like a full-scale invasion here.  I’m sending out fighters to intercept and telling them to target the asteroid-ships first.  We are nearly defenseless against those.”

“I can have reinforcements sent in from Sector 4 if you need them,” I said.

“We can definitely use them and more if you have them to spare.  I’ve never seen the Brotherhood put this many ships into one operation before,” Stonbersa said.

“Admiral Kophious, what about in your sector?”

“It’s pretty much the same thing here, Tibby.  We're seeing a lot more ships appearing on our long-range sensors.  I've sent out fighters as well.”

I’ll have Admiral Yoatoo in Sector 5 send half his ships over to help you out.  I only hope there are no large-scale invasions planned for Sectors 4 and 5 as well.  I’ll also send some of the ships from here in Sector 1 to help out both of you.  Are you seeing asteroid-ships as well?” I asked.

“There appear to be a number of them in the long-range scans,” Kophious replied.

“Damn, how did they manage to assemble such large fleets without us getting any reports about it?” I asked as I turned to Wabussie.

“The only thing the FSO has been picking up is news of increased ship building somewhere outside the sector, we’ve had no news or indications of a large-scale attack."

“Well, we’ve got one now and it looks like they caught us with our pants down,” I said.

“With our pants down?” Admiral Regeny asked with a quizzical look.

“It’s an expression from Earth,” Slater volunteered. “It means they caught us unprepared and in the worst possible way.”

“Ah, I see,” said Regeny, and I could tell he was visualizing the situation.

“Admirals,” I said to Kophious and Stonbersa as a thought crossed my mind, “I need you to send out several ships to survey the inbound asteroid ships, but I don’t want them to fire on anyone.  Use your best pilots flying at highest speeds. I want them to record their passes, getting as close to the asteroid-ships as they can.  It is going to be a hot ride for them as the Brotherhood now can detect them, even if they are cloaked.  I want them to make a quick pass through and get out of there as fast as possible.  I want live feeds on those cameras as well.  I want to see those asteroid-ships.”

“Yes, sir,” both men said, as I watched them turn and give commands to their senior officers.

“What are you thinking, Tibby?” asked Admiral Slater.

“I’m not sure,” I answered. “It’s just a hunch.”

“Tibby, can’t you use a nuke here the way you just did at Alle Bamma?” Regeny asked.

“No, sir.  The ships at Alle Bamma were in a tight cluster of meteors.  The ships attacking in Sectors 2 and 3 are spaced further apart and there is no meteor cluster.  A nuke would only affect their smaller ships, fighters and patrol ships.  Their larger ships now have RMFF shielding and we’d be simply wasting our shots.  Although, if their ships are like the ones at Alle Bamma, it’s possible the EMP might knock out the electronics on a lot of their ships, which might even the odds a bit and even tip the scales in our favor. 

“Marranalis, get A’Lappe on the vid for me.”

Moments later, A’Lappe’s image appeared on the vid screen with Kophious and Stonbersa. 

“What can I do for you Tibby?”

“A’Lappe, how long would it take for you to make up a bunch of very strong EMP devices that we could place inside our torpedoes?”

“What do you mean by a bunch?” A’Lappe asked as he blinked his huge eyes.

“I don’t know, say eight!”

“I could possibly make that many in less than an hour using the computerized assembly machines in the ship's shop,” he said.

“How long to make two?” I asked.

“Twenty minutes, maybe a little longer,” he replied.

“Make two.  I need them ready to move through Cantolla Gates immediately.  I'll get them to Stonbersa and Kophious.  Once those are sent, make up six more and ship them here.”

“Admiral Tibby, in twenty minutes we’re going to be pretty much in combat.  Won’t those weapons harm us as well?” Kophious asked”

“No, our ships are shielded against electromagnetic pulses, but we learned years ago the Brotherhood doesn’t go to that extra expense to shield their ships.  The pulses will kill any electronics they have aboard their ships.  The only ships they have that won’t be affected are the ones they captured from the Federation and possibly their asteroid-ships where the rock is too thick to be penetrated by the pulse.

As we watched on the holographic displays, Marranalis subdivided the battles into two groups that we could watch in separate areas of the War Room.  Sector 2 battles were on the left and Sector 3 on the right.  We could see the first ships beginning to engage in Sector 2; the ships in Sector 3 were still far apart.

“How soon before reinforcements from Sector 4 arrive to assist Stonbersa?” I asked Marranalis.

“The first ships are about to reach the Cantolla Gate and pass into Sector 2,” Marranalis said, “but they’ll have to fly to the battle area from there.  It will be at least an hour before the first ships arrive.”

“Based on your readings, how many Brotherhood ships are there in Sector 2?” I asked.

“Nearly a thousand,” Marranalis answered. 

I heard Admiral Regeny gasp.  “Nearly a thousand?!  By the stars, there’s never been a battle this large!”

“How many ships are in Stonbersa’s fleet?"

“Four hundred and ninety-two, sir, not counting fighters.”

“How many carriers?”

“Three, sir.”

“Order one of the carriers from my fleet here to respond to Stonbersa’s assistance.  Also, notify all our bases on planets with fighters that they are to have them armed and ready to send through gates to the carriers.  What’s the status with the fleet in Section 3?”

“Four hundred and fifty-seven ships, not counting fighters.”

“Send another of my carriers to Sector 3.  We can swarm both sectors with fighters from those carriers.”

“But the Brotherhood still has faster ships,” Regeny said.

“Don’t remind me, Admiral.  I still think we have the tactical advantage, though,” I replied.

“What’s the status of those fighters we sent out to check the asteroid-ships?” I asked.

“One of them had been destroyed by enemy fire,” Marranalis said.  “Two have had minor hits but still flying.  They are in range and should start transmitting any minute,” he announced as a number of screens around the room lit up with displays of the asteroid-ships as the fighters flew by.

“That was too fast to see anything,” Regeny grumbled.

“We can play it back slowed down,” I said.  “Marranalis, play us the first one; slow it down so we can see the detail of it.”

“Yes, sir.” Marranalis said as the first flyby started to play on the main vid screen.

The asteroid-ship was huge, at least six times that of a starship, but in all reality it probably had less than half the area inside as a starship.  There were three hangar openings in the sides and ships could be seen in the interior.  The next flyby showed a smaller asteroid-ship with only one hangar area that we noticed.  There were a number of laser gun emplacements on the surface of the asteroid-ship; and I had a feeling this ship lacked an RMFF shield.

Asteroid-ships four and five were larger than the second asteroid-ship, but smaller than the first.  Each supported two hangar areas and only a few gun emplacements were seen on the surface.

“All right,” I said with a sigh, “get me Stonbersa on the screen,” I said.  Seconds later, his image appeared.

“Admiral, have the fighters with the RMFF piercing torpedoes target the asteroid-ships hangars.  They will have to get in close to do it, there is no other way.  You’re going to need to have other fighters flying protection for them.  I want them going in like a swarm the way we trained them.  All ships to be cloaked.  Warn them that at some point, soon I hope, we’ll be detonating an EMP device that with any luck will knock out most of the Brotherhoods smaller ships.  The starships and asteroid-ships will most likely be unaffected.  When that happens, I want our ships to focus entirely on the asteroid-ships and the starships still operating.

“Marranalis how soon before we get some word from the fighters checking out the asteroid-ships in Sector 3?”

“About another 10 minutes.  So far, there have not been any conflicts in Sector 3; the ships are now getting in range.”

Over the next ten minutes we watched as the fighters in Sector 2 attacked the asteroid-ships.  As our ships approached, the enemy launched hundreds of fighters and our own fighters faced a vast gauntlet of fire.  Nearly 65% of our attacking ships were lost on the first offensive, but they did manage to get two RMFF penetrating torpedoes through into the largest asteroid-ship; the explosion that took place was impressive and then the ship came to a halt and went dark.  However, the other three asteroid-ships continued on with their defensive fighters flying about them like a swarm of insects.  For every one of our fighters that the enemy destroyed, we sent twenty more into action arriving through the Cantolla Gates on the carriers.  Where at the start of the battle, the Brotherhood had a numerical advantage, now we held the advantage, but the Brotherhood ships still had the benefit of speed and destroying an asteroid-ship was difficult.

Abruptly, the three large asteroid-ships remaining in Sector 2 broke off from the rest of the attacking ships and began moving toward the
PRIZAMET,
Admiral Stonbersa’s Flagship.

The
PRIZAMET
was the last starship built by the Federation, since the advent of the Cantolla Gates and the production of carriers.  The giant starships were no longer practical, but Stonbersa was old-fashioned and wanted the ship as his flagship and I saw no reason to deny it to him.  As a starship of the fleet, it could carry hundreds of fighters and numerous other ships in its hangar and a large complement of troopers; but unlike the carriers, it was unable to launch or retrieve ships quickly and required a large crew to maintain and operate.  The ship did have heavy armament and an RMFF field, making it immune to laser fire and torpedoes.