TFS Navajo: The Terran Fleet Command Saga – Book 3 (6 page)

“So the question now becomes one of how we take advantage of this new vulnerability without getting ourselves ripped apart in the process,” Prescott said, glancing over at the tactical plot to confirm the locations of the fighters. “Badger flights,
Theseus
-Actual.”

“Badger 1 … Badger 2,” came the immediate replies from Zhukov and Waffer.

“As I’m sure you have seen by now, the
Baldev
has the capability to reconfigure her aft shields. The good news is that once she does so, she should lose much of her ability to change course and speed. I need some of your fighters to put themselves in a position to maintain a constant threat against her drive section so that she’s forced to keep those supplemental aft shields engaged. With any luck, this will allow us to work on wearing down her shields while limiting her ability to maneuver in response to our attacks. If the shield gap opens up again at her stern, I want them to hit her with everything they have.”

“Understood, Captain,” Commander Waffer replied. “That won’t be a problem. We will also take care of Charlie 4 momentarily. But, sir … I’m concerned we’re being set up here.”

“We’re all ears, Commander,” Prescott replied after a brief pause.

“After our first round of attacks, we C-Jumped to a safe distance, but we took no significant fire from either vessel during the time we were in range.”

“I’m not sure I follow you,” Prescott said. “The
Baldev
did open fire on your element that hit their fighters. Don’t you think you were just in and out before they had a chance to adequately respond?”

“Maybe, Captain, but based on the data we have on those defense platform cruisers like Charlie 4, we’re all well within range of their energy weapons right now, but they still aren’t firing. I’m sure you also noted that Charlie 4 fired only eight missiles before you C-Jumped. I’m not sure what they’re trying to accomplish, but they’re up to something, sir.”

“You may be on to something there, Commander, but don’t you think that allowing their cruisers to get picked off without even putting up much of a fight seems like an ill-advised strategy?”

“Without a doubt, but they probably realize there isn’t much they can do to prevent that from happening anyway. The fact that Charlie 2 and 4 didn’t jump away leads me to believe they have been ordered to lure the
Theseus
in closer, regardless of the cost.”

“Alright, Commander Waffer, thank you for pointing this out. What you’re saying makes sense to me as well, but it’s really just speculation at this point. The truth is that we
are
about to get closer, primarily because we don’t have much of a choice. Please keep a close eye on us when we start slugging it out with Bravo 1. I suspect we’ll be in need of your assistance at some point.”

“We’ll be there for you,
Theseus
. Badger 21 Flight will be C-Jumping momentarily to a position well beyond your current location to cover Bravo 1’s stern. Expect our attack on Charlie 4 to commence in three zero seconds.”

“Thank you, Badgers.
Theseus
-Actual out.”

“One last thing,” Reynolds said, “as far as we can tell, the
Baldev
is still vulnerable to kinetic energy weapons, and, as usual, there are no indications that she is equipped with any sort of point defense system.”

“Humph. I suppose they consider that to be of little consequence if enemy ships can’t penetrate their shields. Helm, plot a C-Jump for an optimum range railgun and plasma torpedo attack run on Bravo 1’s stern. I have to believe that’s still where we need to be focusing our attention. Tactical, set up the railguns for preferential targeting on this new ring of shield emitters. If we can get lucky and open up that shield gap again, Badger 21 Flight will know exactly what to do next.”

“Aye, sir,” all three officers at the center bridge console replied.

“Badger 1 and Badger 21 Flights have transitioned, sir,” Lau reported, paused momentarily, then added, “Badger 21 Flight is now on station to cover Bravo 1’s stern. Badger 1 Flight is beginning its attack on the remaining cruiser.”

The fighters’ attack on Charlie 4 began in a nearly identical fashion to the previous attacks that had destroyed both Charlie 1 and Charlie 2. Once again, all thirty-six fighters transitioned back into normal space roughly seventy-five thousand kilometers aft of their target. This time, however, immediately after each fighter had once again loosed two HB-7c missiles, the space astern of the warship was lit by an intense barrage of energy weapons fire as Charlie 4 — the
Keturah
— finally opened up with every available weapon that had a clear line of fire at the pursuing fighters and their lethal cloud of anti-ship missiles. At a range of only one quarter of a light second, the cruiser’s fire control AI had little difficulty plotting a firing solution for every missile targeting their vulnerable drive section. With surgical precision, the ship’s beam emitters were assigned a precise amount of energy to deliver to each inbound missile before moving on to the next threat in their queue. The cruiser itself, now clearly aware of the tactics being employed by the Human fighters, dipped sharply by the stern as her eight massive sublight engine nozzles blazed forth with a brilliant blue glow. In just seconds, the ship was in a steep climbing turn to starboard relative to her original course.

Realizing that he had temporarily lost the initiative and unwilling to push a bad position, Captain Zhukov ordered his fighters to once again transition to hyperspace.
“Badger 1 Flight is Juliet,”
he announced over the tactical comm channel. Fortunately, only a small fraction of the BD cruiser’s weapons banks had been in a position to fire when his flight had been detected by the
Keturah
. Although a few had taken shield hits, none of the valuable fighters had been lost to enemy fire before C-Jumping safely away. Their attack, on the other hand, had been a dismal failure. Of the seventy-two missiles launched at the
Keturah’s
drive section, sixty-five had been destroyed by her fierce hail of defensive energy weapons fire. The remaining seven had survived long enough to execute their C-Jumps, but the extraordinarily precise positioning required to transition inside the cruiser’s aft shields before impact had been thwarted by her aggressive maneuvers. Only one missile managed to actually reach its target, proximity detonating upon its closest approach to the outer dorsal edge of one of the ship’s sublight engine nozzles and yielding only superficial damage.

“Wouldn’t it make more sense to fire the missiles from a much greater range?” Reynolds asked, scowling at the still-maneuvering
Keturah
on the tactical plot.

“If you could be assured that your target would either remain stationary or maintain a constant course and speed, absolutely. Unfortunately, the greater the range, the greater the chances that the enemy vessel will do something unexpected and invalidate your firing solution. The biggest downside to the HB-7c missile when it’s fired in this manner is that it essentially becomes an unguided weapon for a period of time before it transitions to hyperspace — and that period gets longer as the range to the target increases. So if the target accelerates or makes even a gentle turn, you could well end up with a clean miss. It also takes time for the missiles to stabilize on their course before making their C-Jump. As Charlie 4 just demonstrated, they are vulnerable to being intercepted at any time prior to making their jump, so shorter range attacks have their drawbacks as well. In any event, now that they know what we’re about, I expect it’s going to get a lot more difficult to score an easy kill.”

Chapter 5

TFS Theseus, Location Dagger

(3.3 light years from Earth)

“Should we press on with our attack on the
Baldev
?” Reynolds asked.

“For now, yes,” Prescott replied. “Assuming Waffer’s Badger 21 Flight remains on station to cover her stern, Zhukov still has a total of forty-eight fighters and six RPSVs at his disposal. I suspect he’ll find a way to take down Charlie 4 directly. If he can’t, we may not fare much better ourselves. Tactical, slave our remaining twelve
Hunters
to Badger 21 Flight. There’s no need to expose them to enemy fire at this point. Once we start this run, we need you to take down as many of those new aft shield emitters as you can. I don’t expect this is going to be pleasant, so let’s try to minimize the number of runs needed, if possible. Helm, straight at Bravo 1’s stern, please.”

Before the three officers even had time to acknowledge the order,
Theseus
surged forward as Fisher rapidly advanced her sublight engines to full power. For the first time since transitioning out of
Ingenuity
, the bridge crew felt themselves being pushed back in their seats as the ship’s inertial dampening systems lagged slightly behind her acceleration curve.

“Lieutenant Lee, how do we avoid more of those low angle of incidence shots that tend get past our shields … assuming the
Baldev
starts firing at some point, that is?” Prescott asked.

“We will need to develop a profile of each ship’s firing pattern so that we can avoid putting ourselves in a position where incoming fire hits our shields at angles approaching the perpendicular, sir,” Lieutenant Lee answered from the Science and Engineering console. “We probably won’t be able to avoid that situation completely, but our data will improve every time they fire. Captain Zhukov’s last attack run did a pretty good job of fleshing out Charlie 4’s aft firing pattern, for example. When we start taking fire, the AI will provide the helm console with a graphical indication of where we should avoid flying, if possible. In general, we should avoid passing directly over or under the target and try to keep our course line from pointing directly at their main weapons banks.”

“Thank you, Lieutenant. That’s good info, although it sounds a little like dodging raindrops during a thunderstorm,” he chuckled. “You heard him, Fisher, we need you to modify the definition of ‘straight at ‘em’ just a bit. Alter your course line to avoid perpendicular fire, as often as you possibly can.”

“Aye, sir, I’ll do my best,” the young helmsman replied noncommittally.

“I’m sure we’ll be fine. As soon as our weapons no longer bear on the target’s stern, C-Jump clear and set us up for another run.”

“Optimal weapons range in two five seconds, Captain,” Lieutenant Commander Schmidt reported from Tactical 1.

“Very good. Lau, I need you to pound the hell out of those emitters with penetration rounds from the railguns. Hopefully, they will still be able to get through the added shielding. Schmidt, try a point location attack with a full spread of torpedoes and energy weapons.”

“We could sure use the
Navajo’s
big guns right about now,” Reynolds muttered to herself.

“For the moment, we’ve got the biggest guns Fleet has to offer our here, Commander. But if we can blunt their attack and force them to withdraw from the system —”

“Then if and when they do come back, things will be different,” she concluded.

“I hope so, yes. With any luck, our carriers and cruisers will be able to join us if we have to face the Resistance again … or whoever else decides to show up, God forbid. For now, though, it’s up to us to find a way to stop them, or at least convince them that an attack on Earth is more trouble than it’s worth.”

Prescott glanced over at the tactical plot, noting that the AI was automatically emphasizing
Theseus’
optimal weapons range by surrounding the ship with a green circle. As the edge of their range bubble rapidly approached Bravo 1, he saw that the AI was also displaying a corresponding estimate of the battleship’s weapons range. Just as Commander Waffer had noted, his ship had been within the
Baldev’s
range since their attack run began.
Why the hell aren’t they firing?
he thought, suddenly feeling the hair stand on the back of his neck.

“Optimal weapons range reached,” Lau reported. “Firing.”

At that moment, nine of the destroyer’s fifteen railgun turrets were in a position to target the battleship’s drive section, and all nine now spewed forth steady streams composed of tens of thousands of penetrator rounds flying at nearly ten percent the speed of light. Based on the firing pattern selected by Lieutenant Lau,
Theseus’
AI attempted to converge the outbound railgun fire into two separate streams, slowly tracing each around the perimeter of the drive section in an effort to destroy as many shield emitters as possible. Although not entirely effective at stopping the incoming railgun rounds, the heavy shielding in place over the
Baldev’s
stern still interacted with each one as it approached the hull, reducing its velocity and causing a significant percentage of the rounds to miss their target entirely. Without the shields, the fusillade would have easily transformed most of the warship’s stern into a glowing mass of molten metal as each individual round delivered its destructive cargo of kinetic energy to the target.

Simultaneously, Lieutenant Schmidt had initiated his attack against a two-meter by two-meter target near the edge of several overlapping emitter streams that, according to
Theseus’
AI, corresponded to the lowest mean field strength of any location on the battleship’s stern. Using a technique reminiscent of an artillery tactic developed in the mid twentieth century known as Multiple Rounds, Simultaneous Impact (MRSI), the destructive power of multiple weapon systems were coordinated by the ship’s AI to converge at a single location at a precise moment in time. Accordingly, as Schmidt gave the command to fire, the AI intentionally delayed the discharge of its energy weapons until its salvo of five plasma torpedoes had reached just over two-thirds of the distance to the target. With just two one-thousandths of a second remaining until impact, fully half of the destroyer’s readily available power was shunted to its energy weapons, delivering a maximum power discharge from the twenty-five beam emitter locations currently bearing on the targeted location. Just as it had done with its railgun turrets,
Theseus’
AI took into account the locations of the emitters in play, allowing the individual beams to converge at the designated point of impact.

With Badger 21 Flight remaining aft of their target,
Theseus
received continuous streams of data from several different locations, presenting its crew with a detailed assessment of the damage they had inflicted — even after the target’s drive section was no longer visible from their location. Real-time light and thermally enhanced imagery of the
Baldev’s
stern was immediately presented on the bridge view screen, with the effect on the target’s shields highlighted on the tactical assessment display. The results, while hardly catastrophic for the colossal battleship, were better than expected.

“Captain, we took out several of the new shield emitters down the starboard side of Bravo 1’s drive section,” Lau reported. “The additional shielding is still in place, but it looks like we forced their AI to modify its configuration to compensate for the damage.”

“C-Jumping,” Ensign Fisher reported as
Theseus
concluded her first attack run and altered course to avoid passing directly beneath the huge battleship. As his practiced hands quickly executed the required commands, a series of unfamiliar, but urgent-sounding warning tones issued from the Helm console. “Uh, sir …”

Outside, with
Theseus
now at her closest approach, energy weapons fire burst forth from what looked like hundreds of locations across the entire starboard and ventral surfaces of the
Baldev.

“Fisher, emergency C-Jump!” Prescott yelled, the normally controlled tone of his voice deserting him entirely. In the background, the sound of the ship’s reactors and sublight engines also rose sharply as she attempted to fend off the massive torrent of incoming fire.

“I’m trying, but I’m getting some kind of field integrity fault that I’ve never seen before … the C-Drive is offline, sir!” he replied in near panic.

With little else any of them could do at the moment, the entire bridge crew held its collective breath, each person sending nervous glances in Fisher’s direction as they silently willed their ship to complete its C-Jump. For the next several seconds, his hands moved frantically across the surface of the Helm console as he continued his vain attempts to transition the ship while simultaneously executing a series of high-speed evasive maneuvers.

“Bridge, Engineering,” Commander Logan’s voice boomed from the overhead speakers.

“Prescott. Go, Commander!”

“We are being bombarded by a focused gravitic beam with a waveform that looks a lot like what our inertial dampeners produce. It’s not enough to cause hull damage, but it’s more than sufficient to prevent our hyperdrive from creating a field that’s stable enough for a transition.”

“I need options, Logan.”

“For now, we just need to run!” his chief engineer replied in an uncharacteristically urgent tone. “We’re way too close to be able to count on our shields to protect us.”

As if to underscore Logan’s point,
Theseus
shook violently with multiple impacts as several of the
Baldev’s
bolts of focused, orange-tinted energy managed to avoid being intercepted by the destroyer’s shields, instantly vaporizing sections of her outer hull armor.

Without further prompting, Ensign Fisher selected a course indicated by the AI to minimize the potential for shield penetrations, then pushed the ship’s Cannae sublight engines to emergency power, temporarily allowing them to deliver twenty percent more thrust than their design maximum.
Theseus
responded without hesitation, accelerating away from the battleship in a tight arc as if it were a stationary target.

“Warning, initiate Anti-G Straining Maneuver to prevent G-induced loss of consciousness,” the ship’s AI announced.

“AI, Prescott. Discontinue G-force warnings,” he ordered impatiently. Out of habit, he had begun tensing the muscles in his legs and abdomen as soon as his helmsman had started the series of aggressive turns. “Watch the Gs, everyone,” he grunted, trying to sound more in control of the situation. “We can’t afford to have anyone passing out right now.”

“I guess we just found Admiral Naftur’s gravitic beam weapon,” Logan continued over the intercom, resuming normal breathing as the ship stabilized on its new course.

“Maybe so,” Prescott said. “Let’s hope that’s the only trick they have up their sleeve. Any idea what kind of range we’re talking about?”

“Not really, no. The
Baldev
has a number of heavy gravitic emitters mounted at various locations on her hull, so I can’t even tell you at the moment which ones are responsible for the beam,” he replied, sending a high resolution image of several examples to the bridge view screen. “But I
will
take a wild guess that they have a pretty substantial range … probably a few hundred thousand kilometers at least. If they didn’t, I can’t imagine there would be much point in mounting them on a warship in the first place. I can also tell you that she has arrays like the ones I just sent you on both her ventral and dorsal surfaces, so we’re unlikely to find much of a ‘dead zone’ where they can’t hit us.”

“Thank you, Commander. Keep the shields up and the engines running, please.”

“As if my life depended on it, Captain. Logan out.”

“Sir, Charlie 4 is firing on us now as well,” Schmidt reported from Tactical 1, “but so far, she doesn’t appear to be giving chase.”

“Insult to injury at this point,” he replied, glancing up at the hull impacts counter below the tactical plot, which now stood at thirteen. The ship had taken six additional hits to its hull thus far since beginning its attack run against the
Baldev
. Fortunately, with the distance between the
Theseus
and the two remaining enemy ships rapidly increasing, her shields had once again become highly effective at deflecting the incoming fire. “Helm, I think it goes without saying, but get us as far away from that battleship as you can, as fast as you can, and as soon as you get a stable hyperdrive field, execute your C-Jump.”

“Aye, Captain,” Fisher replied, still rapidly entering commands at the Helm console.

Even with the
Keturah
now sending a sizable fraction of her considerable firepower in their direction, the intensity of the incoming energy weapons fire had lessened somewhat from what it had been just moments ago. With
Theseus’
stern now facing the enemy ships, shield intercept events continued to occur at a rapid pace behind the destroyer as she streaked out of the area. Each interaction with an incoming bolt of energy produced a brief flash of light in the visible spectrum, resulting in a ghostly, white glow that seemed to ebb and flow like flashes of lightning revealing a whitecapped, following sea.