Heart of Steel: Book II of the Jonathan Pavel Series (32 page)

All that was left to do was wait, but they didn't have to wait long. Forty minutes later both the signatures of
Cronus
and
Prime
emerged from the other side of Uffern. Fifteen minutes later, the Colonial battle cruiser designated as Tango-1 came out as well. Jonathan looked at
Fury’s
rate of drift and the course of Tango-1 and smiled.

“Well done Mr. Tang, you threaded the needle perfectly,” Jonathan said.

“I do what I can sir.” he replied.

Fury
was orbiting the planet counter to Tango-1’s course and in thirty minutes they would pass each other, and
Fury
would be within a few kilometers of Tango-1’s baffles. Lidars were in many ways miraculous technology, but they did have their weaknesses and one of those was a ship's engines. The flare of plasma from nuclear exhaust created a blind spot directly behind the ship, the bigger the ship the bigger the blind spot. Some navies like Solaria had invested in expensive tech to help mitigate this the Y-Band lidar array. All Solarian vessels carried it, but it didn’t eliminate the blind spot just it reduced it. The Y-Band, though, was a hotly debated investment even in the Solarian Navy. It was cumbersome, riddled with glitches, and a power hog. The designers at Burlington Applied Systems,
where Tango-1 and the other
Brixton
class battle cruisers had been developed and built, were noted detractors of Y-Band technology. In fact, the designs that came out of that yard’s entire sensor suit were notoriously underpowered. According to Jane’s and Bosun Knowles, there was an 85% chance that Tango-1 suffered from the same deficiencies. The problem was the Colonials were notoriously tech happy and would have probably invested in upgrading the capabilities. Jonathan was banking on the fact that with war coming so quickly the Colonials had not had time to modify and upgrade their purchased hulls, and had to use out of the box versions. If he was right, they would soon be behind the ship. If he was wrong, they’d all be dead.

“Go to Quiet-II,” Jonathan said.

“Aye sir,” Elman said leaning into the com, “All hands we are at condition Quiet-II,” as he said it the lights dimmed.

At condition Quiet-II all non essential systems powered down, only the bare minimum of life support, and the main reactor remained online.
Fury
was marked by the debris, but it never hurt to be overly cautious.

Time passed, everyone sat motionless. No one talked and people did their best not to breathe.

So when Elman cried out, it caused everyone on the bridge to jump.

“Sir, it worked! We’re in her baffles.”

“Right battle stations. Let's go get her,” Jonathan said.     
                         
 
   

At Jonathan's command,
Fury
fired up her engines and brought her life systems online. She began to close on Tango-1 at a steady rate.

“Time to range?” Jonathan asked.

“Twenty minutes sir,” Elman said from his station.

Jonathan watched as the range ticked down closer, closer, closer, and still Tango-1 gave no indication she had seen them as she continued burning after the other Solarian ships, never looking back.

‘My God,’ Jonathan thought. ‘This could fucking work.’

Jonathan wasn't wrong about that. What he didn't know was that his estimation of the battle cruiser’s sensor suite was far greater than its actual ability. Warships usually took between eight months and three years to build depending on class and complexity. The Colonials had been able to get there hands on a large quantity of ETO built vessels so quickly due in no small part to the eccentricities of the confusing quagmire of bureaucratic fiefdoms and regulations that governed the Earth Treaty Organization. This vague ETO law was a holdover from previous regimes that had governed the Core world and mandated that shipyards always construct 30% more military vessels, at a generous subsidization and tax deduction, than were ordered. Supposedly, this was a strategic reserve for the Core world’s fleet. However, these ‘reserved’ ships could be sold to private buyers, nations, corporations, even private citizens. It was from this stockpile that the Colonials had placed their sizable order of close to 100 vessels ranging from Frigates to six
Brixton
class Battle Cruisers. In the interest of filling this large and lucrative order for the Colonial navy, the ETO shipyards had cut corners. One of the trade offs of being able to sell off surplus and stockpiled warships was that those vessels had to be down graded, so as not to pose a threat to ETO security. This meant, while sitting in stockpile, most private vessels had fewer weapons, fewer kinetic barriers and less comprehensive electronic warfare systems. Only the hull and powerplant were on par with their sister ships in service with the ETO fleet. Obviously, when the client was another nation state the shipyards were authorized to upgrade the systems to military levels. However, in the interest of expediency, the ETO ship builders had only upgraded the weapon systems of the
Brixton
class neglecting the sensor systems. In all honesty, the current slap dash sensor systems the Colonial battle cruiser had were inferior to those on some freighters. The Colonial fleet knew about these deficiencies, but there hadn't been time to correct them. The
Fierté du Peuple,
as a result, was quite blind both fore and aft. Her crew believed that all three enemy vessels were in front of them up until it was too late.

Jonathan watched as the ranged ticked down further and further.

“Stand by forward batteries. At my signal, fire rail guns right up their tailpipe. When she rolls, unleash missiles and torpedos and plasma. Helmsman keep us on a straight course. We can't beat this beast in a straight up fight, so keep our profile as narrow as possible,” Jonathan said.

The tense silence resumed as the range ticked down closer and closer.

“Sir, if we wait much longer we’re going to be in their exhaust,” Elman said.

Jonathan smiled, “Wait for it Mr. Elman.”

What Jonathan was waiting for finally occurred. One of the Colonial spacers at the
Fierté
sensor station noticed a shadow playing across the rear of the vessel. With his supervising Noncom’s permission, he redirected one of the arrays to directly astern and boosted it to full power. This created a ping, and when he did that the shadow resolved into the fuzzy outline of a ship. The Colonial technician practically jumped out of his chair when he saw it.

On
Fury’s
bridge Heath cried out, “Sir, they’ve pinged us!”

“Fire rail guns,” Jonathan said.

At Jonathan's command,
Fury’s
four rail guns fired propelling their two meter depleted uranium slugs toward the
Fierté’s
tail. The Solarian gunners had had ample time to calibrate their weapons, so when they fired the slugs they flew straight and true at .5
c,
nearly half the speed of light. They passed through the superheated plasma of
Fierté’s
exhaust without being bothered by it in the least, except to have their surface superheated and irradiated.  Three slugs then smashed through
Fierté’s
main exhaust port, which lacked armor or shielding. They proceeded into the main engine room where they crashed into two of
Fierté’s
fission reactors setting off a chain of internal explosions and causing both reactors to begin to melt down. The fourth slug through a stroke of bizarre luck that is so often seen in battle, flew straight and true through the engine room without  touching anything and wasting any of its energy. It flew down the main corridor, which connected the engine room to the rest of the ship, passing through three blast doors as if they were paper. The slug expended itself when it hit the primary power relay, which was suppose to distribute the power from the engine room throughout the ship. The explosion tore through
Fierté’s
hull gutting her internally and leaving her rear weapons disabled. All told,
Fury’s
first volley had destroyed two of
Fierté’s
three reactors leaving only her forward auxiliary reactor functioning. Of
Fierté’s
1,800 crew, over four hundred were killed in the initial blast including 80% of the engineering staff. These were the people who could stop the reactors, which were now going critical, from melting down.

Even as
Fury
fired her first volley,
Fierté
had begun to roll to engage the new contact on her tail. Her maneuver rockets fired a few seconds after the final slug expended itself on her power relay. The resulting damage to her electrical systems left her steering badly mauled, and she began to spin as she turned presenting a wider profile to
Fury,
but also bringing her still functioning forward weapons to bear.

“Fire all weapons,” Jonathan ordered. Even as he said it,
Fury’s
three forward torpedo batteries, plasma cannons and twelve Menace missile pods cut loose. Normally, torpedos and missiles were used against installations like space stations or ground installations or small ships like frigates. Bigger vessel’s kinetic barriers and point defense systems make it hard to score an effective hit. With her reactors wrecked and her primary power junction out of action, when
Fierté’s
crew tried to bring up her kinetic barriers they flickered and died and her point defense systems failed to come online. As a result, all twelve of
Fury’s
missiles and her three torpedos impacted
Fierté
just forward of her main engines. Her thick armor helped to mitigate the damage, but all of her top armaments aft of midship were now out of action, and almost a third of her hull was open to vacuum.

Still, her bridge remained undamaged and with it her primary fire control.
Fierté’s
forward battery consisted of five turrets, each hosting two rail guns. Three sat on the top of the hull with the center one on a raised deck above the other two. Thus, as
Fierté
rolled and rotated she was able to bring three turrets to bear against
Fury
along with nine plasma cannons. However, with only her auxiliary reactor still online fully half the plasma cannons lacked the power to fire, and the massive damage threw off the ship's targeting array.  When
Fierté
fired, only two of her plasma bolts and one slug found the mark. The heavy slug was powerful enough to pass through
Fury’s
weakened barrier and clip her port side hull. The armor managed to slow the slug enough, but it still took out three of
Fury’s
Plasma cannons and dealt serious damage.

Jonathan felt the ship shake as the slug hit them.

He opened his com, “Mr. Okai increase speed, leave nothing in the tank. Mr. Elman roll us on our starboard side, and bring all guns to bear fire as quickly as they can cycle.”

Fury
began to roll on her starboard side bringing all four of her turrets and her plasma cannons to bear. Per Jonathan's orders, the guns fired as quickly as their crew could reload them pouring plasma bolts and rail gun slugs into
Fierté
amidship as fast as they could.

In the
Fury’s
primary engine room, Lt. Commander Orkai watched as the power levels spiked and the power relays began to go critical.

‘Shit,’ he thought. The retrofit they had installed was holding but barely, and all the extra strain on her power was putting a huge amount of stress on the system.

Lt. Hilper’s face appeared on a monitor from her station in the forward engine room.

“Sir are you seeing this?” she said her voice calm but serious.

“I am lieutenant, suggestions?” Okai asked.

“Sir we’ll be clear of the enemy ship in two minutes. At that point, we SCRAM the forward reactor and shut down everything except engines. Then we run the rear reactor at 125% capacity. That will give us enough momentum to get clear. Then we SCRAM the rear reactor and power back up the forward to run all other systems.”

Okai looked at her. It was a mad plan, completely mad “Hold on..I” whatever Okai was going to say was lost as the coupling retrofit gave way and the
Fury’s
electrical systems pushed beyond capacity began to overload. Sparks flew from every console in the ship. Screens exploded and vital systems were fried, the lights flickered and died.

As the cascade started, Lt. Hilper did two things. One was she redirected the power surge into a single one of
Fury’s
six buffers. This caused a serious explosion and arking electricity to shoot through the forward engine room, but it isolated the damage to a single buffer and kept the engine online. The second thing she did was initiate emergency shutdown of the forward reactor or SCRAM, which greatly reduced the amount of power in the system causing several more systems including all weapons systems to go offline, but kept the engines lit.

Jonathan was plunged into the dark with everyone else as the power on the bridge died. Then he felt himself pressed against the chair as the blaring whine of the acceleration alarm sounded. The acceleration alarm was an analog piece of hardware hardwired to the ship's gravity systems. If those ever failed, it gave the crew a few precious seconds to brace themselves before full force of acceleration hit. Jonathan and every other crewman was pummeled by twelve gravities worth of acceleration. One by one they began blacking out. As they did, one of the ship's last emergency systems sensed the failure of the compensators and cut the engines while simultaneously firing the emergency declaration chemical rockets. This slowed the ship enough to keep the acceleration at 15 gravities, which was just below the level that was guaranteed to be fatal.