The Landfall Campaign (The Nameless War) (66 page)

“
Sensors, give me a tactical overlay on main display,
”
Crowe murmured.

“
Yes sir.
”

On the main holo three circles appeared around the red dot signifying the ship, showing the effective ranges of
Deimos
’
s
plasma cannons, flak guns and point defence. It then did the same for the rest of the escorts. A ring of steel, ready and waiting.

“
Bridge, sensors! Contact separation, we have incoming.
”

On the display new contacts appeared and immediately started to accelerate towards them, a handful of capital ship missiles led by a wave of their smaller general purpose brethren.

“
Enemy missiles will enter flak gun range in three minutes.
”

“
Understood,
”
Crowe replied.
“
Bridge to fire control. Commence engagement with flak guns when missiles close to within twenty-five thousand kilometres. You may engage with plasma cannons as they enter range.
”

“
Fire control to bridge. Understood.
”

All the while the missiles continued to close on them. That was the hardest part, the long drawn out wait, watching the display as they closed.

On board D for Dubious, Schurenhofer
’
s fingers rattled across the control panel as she generated firing solutions and cross-checked against the intended targets of the other fighters. From astern of the cockpit came a mechanical whine as the dorsal and ventral gun turrets deployed from their barbettes. Alanna guided Dubious into position on the upper left of the fighter screen, twelve thousand kilometres ahead of the convoy.

“
Here they come Skipper,
”
Schurenhofer said.
“
We have tone and lock.
”

“
Firing,
”
Alanna said. As she spoke Dubious shuddered as the first of their Starfox missiles left the pylon. Seconds later there was a visible ripple of explosions as the approaching cap ship missiles were blown apart. The small ones continued in and the guns rattled into life as Schurenhofer tried to pick off as many of them as they could before they passed through Dubious
’
s range. Short bursts stabbed out left and right, each terminating in an explosion.

The fighter
’
s threat detection system gave an abrupt whoop as one of the missiles suddenly turned on them. Schurenhofer
’
s exclamation choked off as Alanna violently jerked the controls, sending the fighter rolling way from the threat and bringing the fixed gun in the nose to bear. The first burst of fire riddled it and without pause she reversed the roll putting Dubious back on station.

“
Dubious to all planes. Be advised that some of the GP missiles are being programmed for anti-fighter,
”
she called out as Schurenhofer steadied herself. 

“
Dubious, this is Curious,
”
Malm
’
s voice came across the link.
“
We
’
re missing a fighter. I can
’
t see H for Humphrey!
”

Alanna glanced away from her own display. There was a gap near the centre of the fighter screen right where H for Humphrey
’
s transponder should have been, showing only weak radar returns, just the right size for wreckage. But there was the faint transmission of an emergency beacon.

“
They
’
re search and rescue
’
s problem now. Focus on the job,
”
she snapped at him as the fighter screen redeployed to fill the hole.

Ahead of them the next wave of missiles was launching, while astern space lit up as the guns of Kite String
’
s escort opened fire.

07:48 Hrs Douglas Base time

“
Point defence, commence, commence, commence,
”
Crowe said quietly. In an instant
Deimos
’
s
terminal defence guns started to track and fire. The flak guns had been going for over a minute now. The three salvos the Nameless had thrown into their faces had been pretty substantial, but this kind of single axis, narrow fire corridor presented little threat. In fact the Nameless had by now seen
Deimos
and her sister ships often enough to know that against this kind of fire a flak cruiser could put out enough metal to block any number of missiles. To actually get some through, the Nameless would need to fire from multiple directions to thin the density of counter fire, which so far they weren
’
t doing. If experience had taught Crowe any damn thing it was that while the Nameless might be merciless, brutal and at times frighteningly indifferent to losses, they weren
’
t stupid.

As he was thinking, the last half dozen missiles were stopped several thousand kilometres short of the convoy. He watched the holo waiting for the next salvo to appear through the fighter screen.

“
Tactical, bridge.
”

“
Bridge here,
”
Crowe replied,
“
what have you got for me?
”

“
Enemy ships have checked fire and are now redeploying. They
’
re breaking into three equal groups, going high, low and to starboard. Several escorts are retreating after the non-combatants. Estimate they have experienced ammunition exhaustion and are moving to resupply.
”

“
Do you have an estimate on now long they need to rearm?
”
Crowe asked.

“
Estimate two hours plus transit.
”

“
Guess they didn
’
t count on us being able to take everything they could throw at us,
”
said Lieutenant Colwell.

Counting?
That was probably it.
“
No,
”
Crowe said out loud.
“
Our formation
’
s too tight. They couldn
’
t make out who
’
s who. Now they know who
’
s escort and who
’
s transport.
”

“
It cost them a lot of ammunition doing even that, sir,
”
Colwell said.
“
Tactical says that assuming the majority of their ships had full magazines they
’
ve blown off in the region of half their ammunition. The escorts will have used pretty much all of their cap ship missiles.
”

“
That same could be said of us.
”
Crowe replied.
“
If we have more than fifty rounds per mount left by the time we leave, I
’
ll personally eat one of them.
”

“
Coms, bridge.
”

“
Report.
”

“
Commodore, the enemy powered down the jammers they have in orbit a few minutes ago. The enemy capital ship has started making FTL transmissions.
”

“
That was to be expected coms.
”

“
Yes sir, but we
’
ve just started picking up what look to be replies.
”

“
Any idea on range?
”

There was a long pause across the link as coms cross-referenced previous incidents.
“
Sir, the system is estimating the transmitter is between two and seven hours away. The signal is getting stronger so it
’
s on approach.
”

That was definitely an ominous sign Crowe thought. He
’
d hoped that the taskforce that was now slowly spreading out in front of them was it. Certainly the scout ship didn
’
t give them much of a heads up but he had been starting to wonder whether the Nameless hadn
’
t been able or willing to get more ships back to Landfall. That was now starting to feel like a receding best-case scenario.

“
Erm
…”

“
What is it, coms?
”
Crowe asked.

“
Sir, the Douglas Base FTL transmitter has just come online.
”

“
What are they saying?
”

“
Erm
…
nothing. It
’
s just noise and they keep shifting bands. They
’
re trying to transmit on the same band as the Nameless. I
’
m not sure…
”

Crowe brought up the coms panel on his own screen and immediately saw what the communications section was missing. The shelter wasn
’
t trying to talk to them, instead it was using its own transmitter to chase and jam the transmissions from the Nameless warships. Someone down on the ground had their head screwed on.

“
Coms, bridge. Commodore, we have hook up from Admiral Kennedy on
Horus
.
”

“
Put it through to my chair.
”

Kennedy
’
s lean and angular face appeared on the command chair screen.

“
Commodore, are you aware of the enemy FTL transmissions?
”
the Admiral began without preamble.

“
Yes sir. My communications section picked them up a few minutes ago, and the replies.
”

“
Well I
’
ll bet my left nut that they have reinforcements on the way and if the ones that are already here are holding back that means they
’
re going to get here in time to pile on. How
’
s your ammunition holding up?
”

“
We
’
ve gone through about four percent so far sir. Believe me, we
’
ve learned from experience to keep the shooting short and sharp.
”

“
Good. I think we
’
ve got a quiet spot until heavy cover withdraws or their reinforcements arrive. This was just the warm up. Stay sharp Commodore. I
’
ll be moving
Deimos
to wherever the heat is.
”

10:15 Hrs Douglas Base time

Too late the
SS Gembel
’
s
single point defence gun managed to kill the missile
’
s engine as it charged in but its ballistic course took it straight into the freighter
’
s unprotected flank. She was close enough for
Deimos
to have a visual and Crowe saw the explosion rip clear through the ship. As her back broke, her bow and stern twisted independently of each other. Watching the ship die, Crowe realised he could hear someone shouting across the general channel.

“
This is
Gembel
. We
’
re breaking up! All hands, abandon ship! Abandon shi
…”
Then across the channel came the unmistakeable bang of an explosive decompression and the voice cut off.

Crowe could only pray that the unknown speaker had his suit and helmet on when the hull breached. If he hadn
’
t, well that was one mistake he wouldn
’
t make again, Crowe thought to himself as he watched escape pods starting to detach from the wreck and a pair of shuttles from
Buffalo
heading in to attempt to rescue those who couldn
’
t make it to a pod. The slowly disintegrating ship continued to coast along, holding her place in the formation. Like a dead man walking.

The pause in the fighting had ended almost as soon as Heavy Cover started its withdrawal. Admiral Hyland detached half that force
’
s fighters to pursue the Nameless support ships. Maybe they
’
d catch them, maybe they wouldn
’
t but if the support ships had to keep running, that would be enough to keep the enemy ships that had run out of ammunition off the board. The Nameless combat units that remained were now flying parallel to the convoy and firing carefully timed salvoes, resulting in numerous missiles entering the escorts
’
range on multiple vectors. Most were stopped short but some got through.
USS Florida
was the first to go, struck by a cap ship missile that found its way through point defence fire to score a direct hit on her stern quarter, completely obliterating her propulsion systems. Once the survivors got off, the heavy cruiser
Amun
put her down with two railgun rounds. The
SS Archer
was next. She
’
d been carrying artillery ammunition so when a pair of general-purpose missiles went into her main cargo bay, a single rippling explosion tore her apart. Now
Gembel
. The outright losses weren
’
t the end of it, with another half dozen ships were carrying damage, including two of the escorts. Still by tactical
’
s estimates the Nameless were down to the dregs of their ammunition. Painful as the losses might have been, by the time they reached Landfall orbit, and the most difficult stage of the mission, the Nameless would have largely shot their bolt.