The Catherine Kimbridge Chronicles #4, Retribution (5 page)

“
Captain Takei and his team are ready to deploy the next set of hyperfield suppressors
.
”

“
Right on schedul
e
” Ricky said
.“
Hakaro,
I’
m going to open a hole in the cloak for six milliseconds. I ca
n’
t open for any longer because that beastie has an active scan cycle that will pick us up if I go any longer
.
”

“
Roger that Rick
y
” Takei answered from the loading dock aboard the Honey-Dipper
.‘
That Beasti
e
’ was a Modos Dreadnaught class ship parked in a geosynchronous orbit around Naanac. The
MS Typhoon
was the Syndicate flagship. The latest ENO reports indicated the Chairman himself would be traveling on her. That simple fact represented too great an opportunity to miss.

Hikaro tied his systems into the shi
p’
s AI and confirmed the interlock. He had a team of six that were reconfiguring SJ rounds into simple and potentially non-lethal suppression buoys as fast as they could uncrate them from storage in the Dippe
r’
s hold. The captain-turned-insurgent toggled his commlink.

 
“
Honey now has control of the actual deployment. All units are now actively cloaked and ready to deploy on her go
.
”

“
Well, i
t’
s nice to know at least some of the men in my life are willing to trust me to handle things. Thank you, Captain Takei
,
” Honey said from the co-pilo
t’
s chair.

Ricky snorted
.“
Admit it, sweetie. Ya love me handling yer buttons and knobs
.
”

Honey blushe
d—
which was purely voluntary in an android
.“
Please, captain
!
” she said in mock alarm
.“
Not in front of the crew
!
”

At the correct moment Honey micro-jumped the contents of the loading platform into the space surrounding the dreadnaught. The suppressor probes immediately attached themselves to the massive ship at strategic locations. They would remain cloaked and undetected until they received a special signal. At that point they would engage a hyperfield-dampening system that would effectively prevent the dreadnaught from engaging in a jump or maintaining their shields.

Scattered throughout the system were numerous similar probes. Some were attached to ships, while others were placed strategically to automatically hitch rides on ships hyperjumping into or out of the Naanac system. For the moment the units were inactive. They would remain so until Admiral Kimbridge signaled the start of the GCP counteroffensive. Once that began, the Modos Syndicate would suddenly find itself unable to jump into many of its outlying systems, including its
de facto
capital, Naanac.

Captains Valen and Takei had already visited over a dozen star systems currently under Modos control. In each there was a strong underground that the GCP was hoping to support.

***

Newly promoted Commodore Jason Ruck commanded the SgrA task force near the galactic core. His task was a simple one: Make a good showing for the GCP while minimizing his loses. His command ship, the Mador, was a virtual twin of the GCP
Yorktown
. It represented the best technology available to the GCP. His task force consisted of twenty such ships, as well as several hundred lesser vessels from the various Coalition worlds. That said, he was under no illusion about the ultimate outcome of their encounter with the Modos forces.

Thousands upon thousands of ships would soon be streaming out of the hyperfield conduit that would soon form near the massive gravitational well that represented the galactic core of the Milky Way. It was a simple matter of numbers. The Syndicate had them and the GCP did not.

“
Here they come, sir
!
” Ensign Riker reported, from his sensor station in the back of the
Mado
r
’
s bridge
.“
There is a massive neutrino surge building up. Dexter estimates the corridor will open in sixty seconds
.
”

Commodore Ruck swiveled in his seat to nod an acknowledgement toward the Ensign, while at the same time facing his new XO, Commander Decker.

“
Jim, have Dexter coordinate with the
Rutledge
,
Timkim,
and
Reliant
. See if we ca
n’
t pin down the entry point. Feed the results fleet-wide. I want all ships within twenty AU to micro-jump away from the expected backwash
.
”

“
Aye aye, sir
!
” the XO responded crisply in his characteristic West Country English accent. Dexter was the shi
p’
s newly upgraded AI.

Hitting his fleet-wide comm link Ruck, briefed the armada under his command.

“
This is Commodore Ruck on the
Mador
. I want everyone sharp. Our mission is to engage the enemy but not sacrifice ourselves. This will be a battle won or lost by numbers. They have them and we do
n’
t. Victory for us will be surviving to fight another day while at the same time giving the Syndicate one hell of a black eye. Our ships are faster and our general level of tech is better. But none of that will matter if you allow yourselves to be overwhelmed by their numbers. I want all ships of the fleet to engage in our preplanned Rabbit Hole Alpha formation
.‘
Float like a butterfly and sting like a bee
.
’ Micro-jump in, fire, micro-jump out. Use your rabbit holes to keep your people safe. All jumps are to be coordinated by interlinked shi
p’
s AI using FTL bands. The Modos have nothing like it, so le
t’
s keep them hopping. Good huntin
g
… Ruck out
.
”

The tall black man leaned back in his command chair. The grey of his temple had become more pronounced in the last year but his face and body remained as youthful as ever. He would need that stamina if he and his people were to make it through the next few days. The GCP had several tricks up its sleeve for dealing with the massive Syndicate invasion force that was coming. The fact that covert EN
O’
s had been planted on virtually the entire command staff meant that the GCP, because of their FTL communication capabilities, actually had a better idea of Syndicate fleet deployments and pending maneuvers than the Syndicat
e’
s chairma
n
– a Modos called Snatch Bait.

The moment came and the first of the Modos invasion force arrived. As per normal in transdimension hyperjumps, their arrival was preceded by a massively energetic backwash. If the Modos where hoping to catch any of the GCP vessels unaware by it they were sorely disappointed.

A continuous stream of ships emerged from the maelstrom. As fast as the first ships appeared, they moved forward and began to fire their energy beam weapons at seemingly random angles. It might have been a sound strategy, but given the sheer volume of three-dimensional space the likelihood of actually hitting something was vanishingly small. Still, several of Jaso
n’
s fleet took glancing blows which their shields easily absorbed.

“
Like a butterfly Mr. Washbur
n
… coordinate movement with the fleet
,
” Jason said from his command chair.

“
Sting like a bee
,
” the weapons officer confirmed, while launching a series of Sandies into the onslaught.

The Sandies were hyperjump-enabled missiles that carried a payload of nanites designed to tear apart anything solid they ran into that did not offer a properly encoded friend signal. The result was often sand-sized particles floating free in space, which was where they got their name.

The first several ships encountered the Sandies and the microscopic machines began their gruesome work. Immediately the ships in question began to come apart. Any feeling of elation within the GCP forces was short-lived. The Modos had seen this weapons system before, and they had a response. Ships from the second wave immediately began to sweep the area surrounding the first wave with high-intensity plasma beams. Their captains made no attempt to avoid their own ships and the area was soon filled with the lifeless hulks of several hundred vessels destroyed by both the GCP Sandies and what would loosely be terme
d‘
friendly fir
e’
.

Jason watched as powerful energy beams from the Modos invasion force gutted their own ships. He shook his head. He had thought the KayBees of Kepler-47 had been cavalier about the destruction of their own fighte
r
s
,
but they were at least a hive mind and survived the destruction of individuals. These captains were destroying sentient individuals by the shipload, and they were ostensibly on the same side!  

“
Target the second wave with SJs
!
” Jason barked
.“
Swing us around to mark 214.
8
… positive ascension of 0.1 AU. Weapons-fire full spread plasma for effect. Navigatio
n,
the moment those beams are done discharging, micro-jump us another 10 AU out
.
”

“
Roger that, sir
!
” the various stations acknowledged.

“
I have multiple new jump-points forming
!
” Ensign Riker yelled.

“
How many
?
” The XO responded while assisting with the targeting systems.

“
Hundreds, sir. They are bracketing our ships
!
”

Jason hit the fleet-wide comm
.“
This is Commodore Ruck. Go to Rabbit Hole Beta! All ships engage at will. AIs are to coordinate randomized microjumps. I do
n’
t want anybody lost to friendly fire. Butterflies and bees, people. Butterflies and bees. Ruck out
.
”

“
Ensign Rike
r
… I want a count every five minutes. How many ships are we facing? Work with the XO and report any of our ships that are taking serious damage or are disabled
.
”

“
Understood, sir. No GCP causalities to report, as of this time
.
” He checked his sensor display and paled
.“
Si
r
… We are currently facing something on the order of nine thousand enemy vessels
.
”

“
Confirm nine thousand
!
” Commander Decker barked from his forward station.

“
Nine thousand confirmed, sir
.
”

“
And it is just beginnin
g,
” Commodore Ruck mumbled.

Suddenly the ship bucked wildly. The lights flickered and resumed. The battle klaxon signaled a damage alert.

“
Kill the Klaxon
!
” Jason yelled
.“
Report
!
”

Dexter, the shi
p’
s AI, responded
.“
The
Mador
was caught in a secondary backwash. A Modos dreadnaught microjumped at the same time an SJ round from the Rutledge was deployed
.
”

“
And the dreadnaught
?
”

“
Disabled, sir. Multiple escape pods have been launched. The Modos fleet is maneuvering to avoid them
.
”

“
Scan the escape pods. Any signs of life on any of them
?
”

“
Negative
,
” the AI responded
.“
I am, however, detecting fissionable material consistent with a low-yield nuclear device
.
”

Jason slammed his palm onto the fleet-wide intercom
.“
Attention flee
t
… scan for survivors before pickin
g
…”

“
SIR
!
” Ensign Riker interrupted
.“
The Timkim... It's gone
!
”