A Deep Sleep (Valhalla Book 1) (9 page)

“Now then, we’ve received our first set of deployment orders and we are to execute them immediately, which is why I placed the group on deployment alert prior to this meeting. We are dealing with time sensitive information and so we’re going to have to act quickly.” Athena passed her hand over the 3D interface panel in front of her on the conference table. A map of human-occupied space appeared.

“We are here, in Alpha Centauri.” She said gesturing to the pulsing green system. “We will transit through GJ 445 to reach the FI Virginis system. Once there we will make a short FTL hop to cross the system and go dark near the bottom edge of the system’s Oort Cloud. There is a higher than average density of debris here and several are thermally active. This will provide cover against both light speed sensors and the ensuing disruption should also blind subspace sensors. We will wait in low power mode for approximately a week once on station. There’s no avoiding this because the roving patrols the Russians employ don’t have set schedules so we can’t just move in a known window.” Athena cycled the projection to show a collection of various ships.

“Sir, correct me if I am wrong, but I didn’t think there was a slip gate between Alpha Centauri and GJ 445.” Another gunboat captain gestured at the planned route.

“Well,” Athena said mischievously. “we have recently discovered a gate at about twice the normal distance for slip gates. It leads to a similarly distant point in GJ 445. The Russians likely don’t even know it is there. To be honest, we discovered it by accident and this system is far more transited and explored than GJ 445. We should be in their rear area without them even realizing.”

“And they think that 445 is just a backwater of limited value. A system that they think they control at least one system to either side of 445. They won’t expect us to be there without passing through another system.” The captain completed.

“Correct. Now, since sensor grids are so expensive and detecting a stealthed ship transiting is not a sure thing, as our friends in the long range frigate business have proven, “ Athena nodded to the two frigate captains. “they still have defenses in place to deal with small task forces. That’s why we are going in with a strength in excess of anything they think they might have to face. I’d like more ships, but they simply aren’t available. Not to mention the security problem gets worse the bigger our group.”

“Just what are we expecting to face?”

“This is our target.” Athena gestured to the biggest three ships, located near the center of the convoy. One of the gunboat captains let out a low whistle. “The Russians are sending a convoy from DP Draconia to WX Ursae Majoris via Virginis. Now this is a border system so they’ll be expecting an attack. They are transiting from Ross 154 to EZ Aquarii before jumping into YZ Ceti. This is the last place we can jump them before they transit into the heavily held Russian system of 61 Cygni. Fleet hopes to attrite them somewhat before they reach us, but we are to make our attack plans with the assumption of full enemy strength.”

“Just what are we expecting to encounter?” Lieutenant Commander Hans Unger, Captain of
Fort Totten
interjected.

“The Russian convoy is expected to have as escort; the battlecruiser
Kirov
, the cruiser
Azov
, the destroyers
Kashin
and
Ognevoy
. The escort carrier
Moskva
may also accompany the group. In the event that she does, we can also expect the frigates
Gromkiy
and
Rezvyy
.” Athena saw the looks of shock and disbelief spread as those assembled realized just how powerful the force was they would be facing, particularly if
Moskva
and her escorts were accompanying the group.

“What the hell are they protecting with that kind of firepower, sir?”
Fort Totten’s
XO spoke up this time, Lieutenant Julie Robinson.

“Glad you asked, Lieutenant.” Athena gestured again and the escorts disappeared, with the other ships coming to the forefront. The three ships were clearly of different designs. “In the center, that big boxy bastard is the
Cormoran
, a 1,000,000 MT ore carrier. Fleet intelligence indicates that she is carrying several of the key ores needed to manufacture Russian gravetic repulsors as well as most of their internal drives and shielding components. We’re talking enough semi-processed ore to meet their manufacturing needs for at least three months.

“The second is the
Lancing
, a tanker. As you all know, the Russians have the fuel supplies that the PRC currently lacks since they lost Epsilon Eridani to the Indians. Now they’ll likely try and take that system back, but for now they are reliant on Russian fuel supplies for their ships and fighters. Now the Russians can’t just send them all their frontline fuel, so they’re trying to bring it up from the Beta Canum Venaticorum (BCV) gas giants. This is one of many tankers, so this is not one of our priority targets but just one of opportunity.”

“The final ship is the real prize, ladies and gentlemen. She is the
Sevmorput
, a cargo carrier. Intelligence indicates that she is also making monthly runs between the BVC and their main ship assembly yards in orbit around WX Ursae Majoris IV. Since the war began, the Russians have faced a shortage of missile seeker components. Their losses from our early raids on their electronics factories on the moon of WX Ursae Majoris V have not yet been replaced.”

“I should think not, we didn’t simply raid the place, we flattened it with several dozen nuclear tipped missiles.” Unger said with some degree of satisfaction and a great deal of shrouded grief. He’d been the XO on the destroyer in command of that particular mission. They’d lost four frigates on the way in, another two on the way out and the last frigate and Unger’s destroyer barely escaped. His brother, Lieutenant Heinrich Unger, had been the tactical officer on the last frigate to be lost, USS
Millinocket
, as she covered the escape the pennant ship. It had taken Unger a while to get past that. Strategically it had been brilliant, they’d leveled the Russian’s only significant electronics industry outside of Sol, at least at the time.

“Indeed.” Athena continued. “So now they’ve established new facilities deep in their own space and are sending completed missile nose sections and complete guided kinetic rounds up from there to outfit their new ships. The missiles undergo final assembly in WX and are loaded directly onboard outgoing ships. If we take her down, their forces could face resupply issues if they get into any major fights.”

“Of course, wouldn’t it be just awful if we staged a big attack in the next week or two?” This time it was Sanders who spoke up, a grin forming.

“Quite right XO, I think two might be just about right.” Athena looked at all assembled. “This is key people, if we can destroy these three ships the Russian front might just get sliced right open. Their entire defensive would be untenable if we could cut them in half at FI Virginis, or better yet take WX outright. Questions?” She saw none. “Very well, we depart in three hours. Dismissed.”

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

“Take us out Ensign Masters.” Athena gave the order to the young helmsman to break orbit around Alpha Centauri VI and head for the system’s newly discovered foxtrot slip gate. Six gates in a single system made Alpha Centauri all the more important to hold. Athena knew that this system was critical, for a number of reasons. Of course, the system was second only to Sol in terms of its defensive installations. Then again most were, with all the powers having defenses in Sol. It was a case of Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) though, with neither side willing to break the delicate balance and instead allowing every power to move in and out, so long as it wasn’t any large military forces transiting in system. Task forces passed, in small components, through the outer system on occasion, but never more than a pair of warships travelled anywhere near Earth’s orbit. Over 50% of mankind still lived in Sol, not to mention 65% of the total manufacturing capacity. It wasn’t a risk worth taking, not when there were other places to fight their war, other ways to be the enemy.

Still, Alpha Centauri sported three battle stations as large as those protecting each of the major players in Sol, not to mention a dedicated fast carrier group, five escort carrier groups, and nearly 100 gunboats of various designs. She didn’t even know how many hundreds of fighter-bombers and fighters were scattered through the system in various bases and hidden landing sites. Any Russian-Chinese task force would have a seriously bad day if they assaulted this system.

“Lieutenant Daniels, send the command to the rest of the task force to get underway.”

“Aye sir.” Daniels pressed a single key. “Message sent, Captain.”

“Very well.” Athena allowed herself a small smile, Daniels had clearly already had the command ready to send to have it out that quickly. “Please alert me when we are nearing the foxtrot slip gate, I’ll be in my day cabin. Lieutenant Heath, you have CIC.” Athena left CIC as Lieutenant Heath acknowledged the order and moved from tactical to the command chair.

GJ 445 Delta Slip Gate

USS
Tripoli

Tripoli
was at battle stations, silent running protocols, as were all the other ships of 1
st
LRRS. Her escorting frigates and all her gunboats were in a cloud around her, with everyone transiting the slip gate in a group. This slip gate occurred at least 90 degrees off every other gate and was at least 8 AU further out than the other gates. Being a relatively uninteresting system that was, at least theoretically behind Russian lines, they didn’t expect to find much in the way of warships here. Even still, carelessness got you killed.

“Ensign Johnson, what have you got for me?” Athena realized she was talking in a low voice, an annoying habit of going to silent running. While derived from the silent service on earth, there was no true need to whisper yet the mind insisted on it.

“Passives report nothing sir. We’ve got some old light-based indications of ships that were in system over the last few weeks, but they were all on course for one of the other three slip gates. FTL sensors indicate those are no longer present in system.” Ensign Emilia Johnson was truly whispering. “We do have two contacts on FTL sensors, but without going active I can only give you rough estimations. They are big enough to be anything from a Russian destroyer to a light cruiser, depending on the age. Their power output is pretty low, but in a rear area like this that’s a reasonable state to be in. On the other hand, they could also be merchants operating at normal power levels and just heading between systems. We’ll know more in a few minutes once we get a solid course track.”

“Are they on a course that could take them a slip gate?” Athena asked the question in a normal voice. She hated the habit and tried to break it whenever she could, Johnson followed her example.

“Well sir, it’s hard to tell, like I said we don’t have a lot to work with right now. They could be on course to the alpha slip gate, but it does look more like a patrol ring past it. I’m sorry, sir, there just isn’t enough to work with.” The Ensign sounded frustrated.

“Not to worry, just keep an eye on them. It’ll all fall out of the data.” Athena turned to face Daniels. “Lieutenant?”

“Laser comms, tight beam, coming online now sir. No FTL comms, as per silent running protocols.” Daniels response was quick and clean.

“Sir,” It was Ensign Greene on Stealth. “Confirming stealth conditions throughout the ship. Emissions detectors are extended and reading no outputs beyond accepted ranges. We are maintaining stealth.” Athena had expected as much, since they had stealthed before the jump, but Green was just doing his job and reporting that as a confirmation.

“Sir, we’re getting a better fix on those two contacts now.” Athena almost jumped as Ensign Johnson broke what Athena realized had been several minutes of silence. “I can now confirm that we are looking at two ships in a patrol pattern, on course to do a close pass on the delta slip gate. If they continue on their current least energy course, we will pass within 1,000,000 km of them.

Shit, Athena thought, even if they were superannuated cruisers, they couldn’t miss this group on FTL sensors at that range. There was just no way to power their fusion plants down that low, not if they ever wanted them to get up and going again.

“Energy spike.” Ensign Johnson’s voice was louder, but not quite too loud. “Active sensor emissions, bearing is from Uniform 1. Classify as Strut Pair FTL Search radar. General wide band pattern, forward sweep only.” Daniels paused for a moment, consulting with the team she had to assist with these classifications. “Yes, I can confirm this was a general sweep sir. Looks like they are doing a routine active sweep towards the slip gate.”

“Re-designating Uniforms 1 and 2 as Hotel 1 and 2.” Tactical called out.

“Ensign Johnson, do you have a classification for me yet?” Athena was confident that the Russian ships hadn’t detected her, not with an old sensor suite like that. By the same margin, however, the reflections in subspace of that sweep should be enough for her own squadron’s combined sensor grid to process and obtain a designation.

“I believe so sir. We’re getting designations now sir.” Johnson paused as the designations came through to her console. “Hotel 1 is a
Gnevny
-class destroyer and Hotel 2 is a
Kresta
-class cruiser. The
Gnevny
was the source of the sensor sweep, sir.”

Well, Athena thought, that complicates things. Depending on which generation that
Kresta
was, she could actually be challenging. Not that the group couldn’t take her down with minimal loss, that would be a trivial task. The real issue of concern was destroying her before she got word out. While this wasn’t a heavily developed system, the Russians did maintain several communications relay stations in system. Each was capable of receiving and retransmitting both FTL and non-FTL messages. So even if they jammed the FTL comms, a light speed comm could still be sent to one of those stations, or all of them, which could then retransmit with FTL comm. Athena knew there was no way to jam all the stations, not to mention they’d be missed quite quickly even if she could.

“Lieutenant Daniels, set up a conference with the other captains. 5 minutes, please.” Athena leaned back into her command chair, trying to maintain a cool outward edifice for the crew. She paused for a second, not sure if she was about to make a bold choice or a pointless sacrifice. “And get me Captain Unger, private channel.” Athena looked sharply at Daniels when she snapped her head around. Daniels quickly dropped her head back down to her station. Athena carefully surveyed the CIC and saw that everyone else was too busy to have noticed the quick interaction.

“
Fort Totten
actual, this is
Tripoli
actual.” Athena rechecked to ensure that she was on a private line and not broadcasting the conversation to CIC at large.

“
Tripoli
actual, I read you. Sticky situation we’re in.” Unger was quiet, suspecting her play already.

“Indeed it is.” Athena was quiet as well. She had known Unger, never as a friend so much as in a professional capacity. The man had 5 or 6 years more service than she did, but never the less fate had placed them here, with her in command and nothing but bad choices.

“The Russians have been harassed a great deal by the long range frigates. They just can’t seem to keep us out of their space, no matter how much force they have in place. We’re just always showing up in their rear areas. At this point, I don’t even think it would surprise them.” Unger said, trying to force a little gaiety into his voice. Athena didn’t think he was very successful.

“They do seem to have a lot of trouble with you boys and girls. You’ve certainly been giving them hell.” Athena paused, she hated what she had to do next, even if he knew what she was going to say. “I need a distraction, Hans, and I need to ensure that they have no reason to raise the alarm to the convoy.”

“You also can’t let them discover the slip gate sir.” Unger also paused. “I think I can manage a distraction. Did you know that we set the fleet speed record under stealth conditions last month? Had fleet engineers crawling all over the engine room to see how my Cheng tweaked our engines and thrusters to give us the best speed. Damn fine engineer, we’ve got 10% more acceleration than anything else.”

“You just make sure, once you’re made, you drop the act and run like a scalded dog for Sol. Lalande is well defended but they still haven’t replaced that battlestation at the alpha slip gate, so you only have to get past the mobile patrols at sub-light speeds. A quick FTL hop or two and you should be in the clear. Are we clear?” Athena knew he knew all those things, but she had to say them anyway.

“Yes sir, we’ll be red lining the reactors all the way sir. We’ll have the coffee on the stove waiting for you when you get back to Centauri.” He paused for a long moment. “Good luck sir, see you on the other side.” He cut the link. Athena closed her eyes, let out a shuddery breath and sucked in a fresh one. She turned on her CIC mic. “Lieutenant, how’s that conference set-up coming?”

“Ready now sir.” Daniels responded. Athena nodded and engaged the conference, popping her visor, somehow feeling like the stale CIC air was better than the ship provided stale suit air.

“Alright everyone, you should be able to see the two Russians on your own displays and the intercept geometry we’re facing. We’re going to have to play this one real cool.” Athena momentarily wondered what the rest of her command’s reaction would be to her plan. No margin in worrying about it now though, it was the only chance at continuing the mission. “
Fort Totten
will make a stealthed run towards the backside of the ships, looking like he wants to make a run for the alpha slip gate. One they turn and give chase, we will be able to avoid the most unfavorable intercept geometries, even if they head back this way to check our back trail. This will clear our path for the charlie slip gate. Comments, Questions? We don’t have a lot of time.”

Athena counted the seconds, 1, 2, 3.

“Sir,” Lieutenant Commander Gabriel Weklar, Captain of
Fort Worth
broke into the uncomfortable silence. “Wouldn’t a two frigate team be a more believable decoy? We stopped sending solo frigates back behind their lines some time ago, just kept getting chewed up.”

Athena smiled despite herself. Gunboat crews weren’t the only ones who were crazy.

“I considered that, but this group is already undergunned enough, losing both frigates is just too much degradation to our strength.”

“I have to agree with Captain Harper here, Weklar. I’ll handle the diversion, you just get the bastards for us.” Unger came into the conversation, his voice controlled and firm. The man was the most senior officer in the group, even if Athena was in command of the mission.

“I just…” Weklar sighed, resigned. “Alright Unger, good luck to you.”

“Thank you, to you as well.” Unger replied.

“If there is nothing else, let’s get down to it.” Athena unconsciously straightened in her command chair. “
Fort Totten
will begin execution of her maneuver in 1 minute. We will begin 75% of stealth thrust 30 seconds later. Once
Fort Totten
is detected, we will cut all thrust and coast towards the charlie gate. Maintain comms silence until broken by pennant.
Tripoli
out.” Athena closed the connection. She slowly panned around CIC, taking in the people working around her. A few were casting furtive glances at each other. The tension level had risen significantly since she had begun her address. There were a lot of green crew on her ship, including a handful in CIC, and they were about to get their first taste of operations behind enemy lines, of sacrifice, of death. They would now share with her and all the other combat veterans the helplessness of watching friends and comrades sail to their deaths while they themselves lived, watched. For Athena, it was worse, she was the one giving the orders and she still had to sit here and watch the results of those orders.

“Sir,
Fort Totten
is breaking formation, 110% of rated stealth thrust. They are still maintaining a low profile, however, no more than 1% over normally accepted max.” Johnson sounded unperturbed by the tension in the compartment. Athena took that to be a good sign.

“Very well. Maneuvering, prepare to execute the designated thrust plan. Navigator, are the course correction locked in?”

“Yes sir.” Came the reply from navigation.

“Aye sir, preparing to thrust in 20 seconds.” Maneuvering answered.

Athena readjusted in her command chair for what felt like the hundredth time as the thrust engaged. Though the dampers took out the feeling of the thrust, the designers had left just a trace in the ship. Athena appreciated that, allowing her to feel the thrusters engage, feel them pushing the ship. It gave her the impression she was much more connected to and aware of her ship.

“We’re in the groove, sir, directly on path to the charlie jump point. Building velocity now.” Ensign Conway at the navigation station reported.

“Very well, let’s…” Athena began.

“Sensor sweep!” Johnson almost shouted, cutting Athena off per protocol. “Originating from Hotel 2, the
Kresta
sir. I’m reading a second-generation Flat Face, make that a Flat Face B search and acquisition FTL pulse sensor. Single sweep, she had to have received a return off
Totten
, sir.”

Enough to pin her down?” Athena asked quickly but evenly.

“Not likely sir, just enough to know for certain she has a ship out there and not a sensor ghost. She probably didn’t get a class, but maybe an approximate mass. She’ll likely know it’s a frigate she is hunting.” Johnson responded.

“Very well.” Athena responded.

“All ships have secured from thrusting operations.” Daniels reported. She was wearing two hats, comm officer and Athena’s aide as pennant.

“New sensor sweep, from Hotel 1 this time. 45 degree wedge, centered roughly on
Totten
.”

“Even knowing where she is, she’s still going to have trouble localizing. That
Gnevny
has an antiquated sensor set, sir.” Heath at tactical chimed in.