First Command (45 page)

      
“Helm, execute.”

      
The K’Rang corvette sensor operators had no warning.
 
One moment their sensors were clear, the next there was a Human Scout ship off their starboard side.
 
Nine guns opened fire at once and blasted a hole clean through the corvette.
 
Kelly could see stars through the gaping hole.
 
They were doomed.
 
No airtight doors could save them.
 
Explosive decompression boiled the blood of the K’Rang crew and killed them almost instantaneously, if not painlessly.
 
As the K’Rang ship was wracked with secondary explosions, Kelly ordered the helm to their next hide position.

      
Kelly walked back to the galley for fresh coffee and to check with sensors on the status of any other combatants in the vicinity.
 
Chief Johnson reported no contacts other than the K’Rang fleet in the cluster.
 
Kelly had Chief Johnson inform him the second the 3rd ALG sprang the first trap.

      
Kelly didn’t have long to wait, as the K’Rang fleet was moving faster than expected.
 
The first trap in the cluster was a web of stealth mines across the most direct and widest path.
 
When the leading destroyer lost part of its bow to a mine, the autonomous mines behind the rear of the formation moved out to block off their escape.
 
Torpedo ships swarmed out from behind a brown dwarf on the starboard side of the fleet and let loose with all torpedoes.
 
56 torpedoes spread out and locked in on the major combatants.
 
As the fleet launched defensive missiles to ward off the torpedoes, an A-76 squadron left the cover of a brown dwarf on the port side of the fleet and launched 144 medium missiles at the penned in K’Rang.
 
Further defensive missiles left the ships and sped out to intercept the incoming missiles.
 
The torpedo ships and A-76s pulled away and flew to land on the Golden Eagle to reload.

      
Only ten torpedoes and twelve missiles made it through the K’Rang defensive fire to a target.
 
One frigate took two torpedoes amidships and was ripped in two by the combined explosions.
 
A second frigate lost all gun and missile mounts forward of the bridge.
 
A light cruiser lost its stern and drifted in space venting gases, a total loss.
 
Secondary explosions ripped large chunks off the ship and sent them off through the cluster.
 
The immobile lead destroyer received three medium missiles and ceased to exist.
 
The antimatter warheads tore the ship into small pieces.
 
One support ship lost its stern to a medium missile.
 
Four and a half ships destroyed or damaged was not a bad result.

      
Kelly watched as the destroyer and three remaining cruisers methodically blasted the space in front of them to open a path through the minefield.
 
Slowly and by twos, the K’Rang fleet passed out of the kill zone.

* * * * *

      
Fleet Commander J’Kalt called for damage reports.
 
Four ships were total losses and one partially damaged, but still underway.
 
He would have to move slower now and fire on every possible hide location.
 
He couldn’t let the Humans dictate his maneuvers.
 
He had to find a way to get out of this tunnel they were leaving open for him and find a clear path.
 
The Shadow Destroyer was picking up terrestrial comms ahead, so there must be a base out there.

      
As J’Kalt analyzed his current situation, the Shadow Destroyer reported they had come to a dead end.
 
Gravity was increasing and they must turn around.
 
As J’Kalt gave the order to reverse course three assault landing carriers appeared from behind a series of four brown dwarves and opened fire on the four rear guard frigates and support ships.
 
Their plasma guns, designed to send plasma bubbles at hyper velocity speed through a planet’s atmosphere and destroy defensive positions, burned through the hulls of three support ships and a frigate.
 
The burnt husks of the four ships floated off into the gravity well of a brown dwarf and were sent into a slow spiraling orbit.
 
The Human assault landing carriers turned and disappeared into the cluster.

      
J’Kalt ordered the three remaining rear guard frigates to pursue the carriers, but a squadron of A-76s was waiting for that.
 
They killed two of the frigates and chased the third away.
 
J’Kalt ordered his remaining fleet to move out of the dead end and form up in an all around defense.

* * * * *

      
The three assault landing carrier commanders were elated.
 
They had just done what tacticians will tell you shouldn’t be done.
 
They had intentionally put their ships into harms way.
 
Normally carriers of any kind never see the enemy directly.
 
Oh, they may see fighters or attack ships, but never main combatants.
 
CDR Milton was the most elated of all.
 
His idea had borne fruit.
 
Not only did they take out four ships on their own, the accompanying attack ships had taken out another two.
 
Mark down four for the gators.

      
CDR Milton saw an opportunity to take out the two remaining light cruisers.
 
If they could sneak their carriers behind a pair of brown dwarves to one side of the formation, they could get clear shots at the two remaining light cruisers and slip away to their next hide location.
 
He briefed his plan to the other two captains and they were for it.

      
They would pull back out of sensor range and line up behind the twin brown dwarves and moved forward slowly.
 
Unfortunately, they failed to account for the final rear guard frigate being slow to rejoin the formation.
 
His sensors picked up the Bee as it slipped in behind the dwarves.
 
The frigate lay in wait for the carrier to pop up, relaying this information to the Fleet Commander.
 
Many guns swiveled in that direction.

      
The Bee dropped down below the dwarf.
 
The Yellow Jacket went high.
 
The Wasp went right.
 
All three carriers fired at the two light cruisers and moved to slip back behind the dwarves.
 
The Yellow Jacket had to pull up to be able to loop back behind the dwarves and presented a perfect target to the K’Rang fleet.
 
A broadside from seven ships hit the Yellow Jacket in the port side AS-500 docks and folded the ship in half.
 
CDR Milton and 700 crewmen died in an instant, as secondary explosions cascaded through the hull.
 
The light cruiser N’Gal exploded five seconds behind it, as six sun-hot plasma balls burned through her hull.
 
The light cruiser G’Bid evaded two plasma balls, but took one on the bow, causing minor structural damage.
 
A fourth plasma ball hit the main deck and burned out an entire missile pod.
 
G’Bid was still combat effective, but at a reduced level.

* * * * *

      
Admiral Minacci was shocked to hear of the loss of the Yellow Jacket and all its crew.
 
He had never lost anyone under his command before.
 
Now he had lost 700.
 
He considered pulling the two remaining carriers back to his location, but the losses they were inflicting seemed to be worth the risk.
 
He signaled the captains to continue, but not to put their ships in danger unnecessarily.

      
He pushed the loss of the Yellow Jacket into the back of his mind.
 
He would mourn them later.
 
For now, he had several hundred K’Rang memorials to arrange.

* * * * *

      
Connie watched the death of the Yellow Jacket and it all hit her at once.
 
This was real.
 
This wasn’t some simulator back on Antares Base, but real combat where real people died.
 
She pushed her feelings back somewhere deep inside to be pulled out and mourned over later.
 
She had just seen 700 crewmen die.
 
Rather then cry over them, she would have to find out what went wrong so that it didn’t happen to others or to the Vigilant.

      
She asked Kelly, “Sir, what did they do wrong?”

      
Kelly thought for a moment, then replied, “The K’Rang must have seen their approach, probably that frigate lagging behind the fleet.
 
They were waiting for them to pop out from behind those dwarves.
 
Look how the guns were already swiveled in that direction.
 
The Yellow Jacket went high and had to loop up and over to get back behind cover.
 
If they had gone left, right, or down, they probably would have made it back under cover.
 
The assault landing carriers have thrusters only on the bottom and sides.
 
That loop, and the fact the K’Rang were waiting for them, killed them.”

* * * * *

      
Fleet Commander J’Kalt watched the debris of the carrier being slowly sucked into the brown dwarves’ gravity.
 
That would make the humans more cautious and not so cavalier.
 
It was time to recon by fire.
 
He instructed all his ships to open fire with energy weapons on any suspicious location that could be used as a hide spot for Human ships.
 
He also ordered an increase in speed.

      
J’Kalt watched how his ships reacted to their new orders.
 
Every dust cloud, brown dwarf, and asteroid was grazed by energy weapons fire.
 
That would keep the Humans’ heads down.

      
There was one threat J’Kalt had not experienced, and his lead destroyer was about to run into it.
 
Just around the next bend was a threat with no fear and no head to keep down.

Chapter Seventeen

      
The autonomous missile pod had been constructed in the armaments factories on Schirra, otherwise known as Centauri B-7, the Energy World, Inc. planet.
 
The pod and the others like it had been on their way to Algol Station, to be delivered to the Algolian fleet, when the Baratarians captured them.
 
It had originally been programed to activate when Aldebaran ships came into its sensor field, but were easily reprogrammed to react to K’Rang engine signatures.
 
This pod and the other five around it were waiting to accomplish their purpose.

      
It was another pod that first detected the engine signatures of multiple K’Rang ships approaching at 0.2
c
.
 
That pod sent a burst transmission to the other five, dividing the targets among the six of them.
 
The pods stood behind their cover, unflinching, as energy bursts flew by or were absorbed by what they hid behind.
 
When the ships were almost within minimum range, they rose up as one and let loose their missiles against the most valuable targets.

      
Sixty medium missiles launched against the K’Rang fleet.
 
The missiles so close there was very little the K’Rang could do.
 
The missiles were inside the minimum launch range for defensive missiles.
 
All they could do was fire all guns in the incoming missiles’ direction and hope to hit something.
 
The close in defensive guns took out some missiles, but a disproportionate number made it through to their targets.
 
Two missile/gun destroyers were lost in antimatter explosions as bright as a sun.
 
A damaged light cruiser went out in a similar way.
 
Two support ships trying to evade the fire turned into the path of missiles aiming for the destroyers and disappeared in a number of blinding antimatter explosions.

      
Fleet Commander J’Kalt looked on his diminishing command and had them increase speed to 0.3
c
.
 
He must get through to this base that was reading stronger and stronger on his sensors.
 
If he could reach their base, he could threaten it, causing the humans to have to come to its defense.
 
There he could engage them in open battle and defeat them.
 
He had his two newest defensive frigates reload missiles at their support ship.
 
He pulled out the Shadow destroyer, his Shadow heavy cruiser, the remaining light cruiser and the two reloading frigates to ram through the remaining human defenses at 0.5
c
.
 
The remaining fleet would be under the command of the senior destroyer captain.
 
J’Kalt’s heavy force would go to port and the light destroyer-led force would go starboard.
 
The heavy force would push through quickly and assault their base.
 
The light force would continue to feel its way through the defenses.
 
When the Humans pulled back to defend their base, the light force would close with the heavy force, come in behind the Human fleet and destroy it in detail.