Federation Reborn 1: Battle Lines (50 page)

“Frack.”

Amadeus saw the word and snorted. “My sentiments exactly. We'll take them down eventually, Admiral, like wolves running down a moose. It won't be pretty though, and I expect our losses will be even heavier than they already are.” He half expected John to order him off, to just harass the enemy and keep him off balance.

“You're the commander on the spot, Amadeus, do what you think you can do.”

“Well, the good news is it hasn't been entirely one sided. They've been hurt, hurt bad. We got, I should say the bombers got, a big chunk of the
Derfflinger
. Oh, by the way, we're tentatively ID'ing that ship as the
Nevada
. The other we're not sure about, but according to the war book, her division mate is
Massachusetts
.”

“Good to know.”

Yeah, it was always nice to know the brute who was about to kill you Amadeus thought. “I'm working on another plan now. I'll update you before we implement it.”

“Good hunting TF 22. Steady aim and sailing. May Lady Luck shine on you and Murphy's gremlins torment our enemies. Antigua out.”

“Protodon out,” Amadeus murmured.

He checked
Halsey's
status. The carrier had enough torpedoes to arm half of Meia's remaining fighters plus the three bombers one time. After that she'd be dry. Not a good thought, he thought. The pilots were also exhausted. Only their implants were keeping them on their feet now that the adrenalin had worn off.

“Have the gunships resupply.”

“Sir?”

“Order them off. Tell them to get to the warehouses, pull our people off and pull as much hardware as we can. Focus on fighter parts and munitions. Tell the corvettes and frigates to follow at their best speed.”

“We're abandoning the warehouses, sir?”

“They are just storage. The enemy is expecting us to stand and fight to protect them. Well, we're not going to do so. We'll pick our own terms to engage.”

Jojo looked at him dubiously but nodded. “Aye aye, sir,” she replied finally, then turned to send the orders out.

“Tell them to expedite,” the admiral said as the plot changed. The flag lieutenant looked up in time to see the course change on the plot. The enemy ships were no longer headed directly in to the planet but had changed course for the warehouses and the ansible platform. And there was no way to move either of them.

“Frack,” Jojo murmured softly.

“Let Pendeckle know he may have kinetic strikes coming his way any minute. Get his people under cover,” the admiral murmured.

---<>---<>---

“I don't want to get in too close. They might blow them up out of spite.”

“You think they would think we would board, sir?”

“Up until recently we've been pirates, remember, Shantell?” Captain Post said. “So, we'll use that against them. Ready kinetic energy strike. Target the planet and the stations. Once we have fired, we'll maneuver away. There will be nothing left for us there.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Unfortunately, we don't have enough weapons to stay in orbit and bomb the Feds into oblivion. I'd like to do that; it might draw White into attacking out of desperation. But he knows our capabilities, and I bet he will count how many KEWs we'll fire. So we'll try … something else,” he said.

---<>---<>---

Major Pendeckle got the warning to evacuate in time to put his forces in motion. They had been sealing the caves to keep the damn enemy from reusing them. Now that was a problem, not just for his marines but also for the surviving population.

“Get everyone underground or dispersed,” he ordered. “The same for our hardware. Distribute the ammo dumps and put drones on them to keep an eye on things.”

“Sir …”

“Don't argue with me, do it!” the major snarled just as an alert sounded. He looked up as a klaxon began to wail. “What the hell is it now?” he demanded as his implants pinged. He blanched white as the header got his immediate attention. Imminent kinetic strike.

“Move people! KEW strikes incoming! Get everyone under cover, pronto!”

---<>---<>---

“Fortunately, they've got the warning, and they've got time. Not much time, but time,” Amadeus said as he watched a cloud of rocks erupt from both battle cruisers. They weren't just targeting the ground though; some were headed for the orbital warehouses and the ansible station.

“Sir …,” Jojo said uncertainly.

“I see it. Get the warning out to those gunships.”

“Sir, it won't make much difference,” Jojo said, doing it anyway.

He felt helpless; he couldn't do anything but watch as his people died around him.

“Warm up the ansible. I've got one last message,” he stated.

---<>---<>---

Admiral Irons got the report of the latest situation in Protodon as well as a warning that the ansible was about to be destroyed. He grimaced as the ansible's link terminated with finality. It had been taken out by a rock it couldn't avoid. He sighed heavily. “Well, we're out of it.”

“We were spectators anyway,” Sprite said.

“Yeah, well, the real sucky part is we don't know. And won't know until someone gets word back here or to Kathy's World,” the admiral replied. “Order the ansible techs to pull the Protodon instillation. We'll have to refurbish it,” he said.

“My, you are practical,” Sprite stated.

“I do what I can with what I've got. Amadeus will do the same. We just have to trust him to do the right thing.”

“Yes, sir.”

---<>---<>---

Heavily loaded down with materials, two gunships couldn't quite evade the buckshot coming their way. Both were torn apart. The munitions they had been carrying detonated finishing the job.

Steel rain fell onto the planet. Some of the smaller pieces were ablated into nothing by the superheated plasma generated by their high velocity into the atmosphere. But some got through. The spaceport took the brunt of
Massachusetts
rage. Fire walked into the abandoned capital city and buildings toppled. More fire hammered into towns and villages on the continent until the lethal cloud ran out.

“Is it over?” a staff sergeant asked, looking out under the lip of the sewer drain to the purple and red sky kilometers away.

“Don't jinx it,” a voice said from behind him.

---<>---<>---

“That should cut their ammunition supply nicely,” Captain Post said. “Now fuel.”

“Sir, we're still getting a handle on the damage.
Nevada's
engineers have gotten one of her engines back online but two are still out.”

“Tell them to keep on it. We'll move at her best speed to the next target.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Did anyone have an idea on what that second platform was? The smaller one?”

“Um, no, sir. Some sort of communication's platform,” the tactical officer said. He pulled up a video of the station and then put it up on the main screen. He froze it at the best image. “Yes, see the antenna and dishes? Some sort of communication's relay?” he mused.

“Get communications to look it over. Any sign of viruses?”

“No, sir. We're keeping a tight lock on
Nevada
and not accepting anything else, sir,” a communication's rating said, looking up.

“Good man.”

---<>---<>---

Jojo moaned when he saw the scattering debris of the warehouse platforms. “Damn.”

“I know,” Eddie the helmsman said, shaking his head. “All that work down the tube. Dude, that
sucks
!”

“Yeah. I don't have the heart to tell Owen. He'll commit seppuku for sure,” Jamal said.

“What can be built can be built again,” Captain Ssri’allth said simply. “Ensign Lovejoy has enough to deal with now with the ship repair,” he said as the bridge staff turned to him. “Attend to your duties. We have a battle to win. We cannot rebuild until it is completed.”

“Yes, sir,” Jamal said tightly. He exchanged a look with Eddie and nodded grimly.

“And if you wish, think of exacting revenge on the enemy. If that helps you, so be it,” the Naga said quietly.

“Now you're talking, sir,” Eddie growled with a raised fist.

---<>---<>---

Once his ships had resupplied from the gunships, Amadeus had them move on the refinery to get as much fuel as possible. To his surprise the BCs followed.

“What the hell?”

“Scorched earth,” Captain McGuyver said over the captain's link. “They are taking everything out, sir. They can't force us to engage, so they'll take everything out and either withdraw or wait and make us withdraw, sir,” he said.

Amadeus nodded.

“Sir, Captain Vargess and Commander Meia have a plan. It may not take them all the way out, but it should do some more damage,” Jojo reported.

“Let's hear it,” he said.

---<>---<>---

Massachusetts
tucked
Nevada's
wounded starboard flank into her own port side so it wouldn't be accessible easily. They marched on the refinery platform. Ships scattered away from it gratifyingly, but the two crews were aware that something else was going on. The battle wasn't over; it didn't feel like it.

“We're still getting tracked by their AWACS,” Commander Esenly reported.

“And there isn't a damn thing we can do about it,” Captain Mueller replied, thoroughly disgusted. For Arnold's plan to work, they had to draw the enemy in, to hit them. But the enemy had to cooperate to do that. So far they hadn't been that stupid.

“Ma'am,
Massachusetts's
CIC is reporting they are getting lidar hits, long range on the starboard flank. Powerful ones.”

“Another flank attack?”

“I think … I don't know. We shot them dry twice. Could they have picked up enough pods to justify coming in again?” Commander Esenly mused.

“Or it could be a bluff.” She wasn't sure about other stockpiles of weapons. If this had been her star system, she wasn't so sure she would have had all her eggs in one basket.

“Or a bluff, yes, ma'am. But ...”

“Ma'am, the flagship has reported a sighting of the escort carrier on her starboard flank at extreme range.”

“That tears it,” a rating murmured.

“Prepare to intercept a fighter strike. Helm, get us in close to the flag but not too close. Be prepared to maneuver with them,” the captain ordered.

“Aye, ma'am, I've got the link here,” the rating said, pointing to the helm data link on the screen above his yoke.

“Good. Don't wait on me to confirm a helm order. If they move, you move. Got it?”

“Aye aye, ma'am.”

“Once they shoot their wad, we'll get our licks in, then get out of here. How is DCC coming engineering?”

“We've finished what repairs we can to the structure, ma'am. She need a yard to do a proper job though,” the engineering rating said from her station. She turned and waved a tablet. “She's not pretty, ma'am. We're running power lines to the systems that are still intact but lost power. The plasma from the EPS conduits that ruptured did almost as much damage as the weapons did.”

“Just be glad they weren't nukes and didn't get all the way through our armor. If they had gotten to the core we would have been wreckage,” Esenly said from her station, not looking up from it.

The captain eyed the woman then looked away. “We still could be,” she said very, very softly.

“Flag is firing KEW strike now. We're to maneuver to the jump point afterward, ma'am,” the communication's rating stated.

“Very well. Keep me posted.”

---<>---<>---

Halsey
and the other ships feinted a bluff attack on the two ship's starboard flank while the corvettes and frigates feinted from above and below.

There was nothing that they could do about the KEW strike on the platform. Marshall attempted to maneuver the platform remotely, but there was no telling if it would work or not. If the enemy had fired smart rounds or a smart enough missile in the swarm, the effort would be moot. But it had to be made nonetheless.

As the ships started to move in, Meia's bombers and fighters dropped their stealth to pick up their speed for their attack runs from
Nevada's
port side.

“Here we go!” a bomber pilot yodeled.

Meia grimaced but remained silent. She had the three bombers and fifty fighters remaining. Each of the bombers had four torpedoes while her twelve of her fighters had one torpedo each. The fighters hadn't been set up to carry the torpedoes properly so the bombers had to stay in the groove and fire them remotely with their telemetry data. It was going to be a hair raising experience she thought. The other fighters were there as window dressing and to soak up the counter fire that was about to start … her train of thought cut off as she focused on staying alive.