New Frontiers (Expansion Wars Trilogy, Book 1) (17 page)

She was looking forward to redeeming herself after Xi’an, but she carried a healthy respect for her enemy into the fray. Their ability to jump around within a system and transport whole starships away wasn’t something to be taken lightly, but she’d be damned if she tiptoed onto their turf and skulked around the edges, afraid to be noticed. It was high time these assholes learned just who in the hell they were messing with.

“Transition complete, verify position,” Accari called out.

“Position verified!” the nav specialist called out. “We’re less than five hundred kilometers from our target jump point, just inside the heliopause of Tango System.”

“OPS, stow the warp drive and inform Engineering I want the RDS online immediately,” Celesta ordered. “Helm, use our transition velocity and maneuvering thrusters to clear the area. I want the mains ready to take over for the RDS without pause, so have the plasma pressure at full operational level. Tactical!”

“Passive sensors already scanning, ma’am,” Adler said. “Thermal imagers verify enemy presence down in the system. I’ll update as the data resolves.”

“Set condition 2SS,” Celesta said, adjusting the readiness level of her ship. The crew had already been at general quarters before they’d transitioned in. “Coms, inform Flight OPS that we’ll be launching our drones as soon as we have confirmation the
Atlas
and
Hyperion
have arrived.”

“Aye, ma’am,” Ellison said.

“Transition flash!” Adler said.

“That’s the
Hyperion
,” Ellison said. “They pinged us with a com laser the instant they arrived.”

“Captain Walton is quick on the draw,” Barrett said as he watched his terminal.

After the initial excitement there was nothing else to do until the
Atlas
showed up but watch the passive sensors to make sure a Darshik patrol didn’t stumble across them.

“Settle down, everyone,” Celesta said. “We can’t do anything until the rest of the formation shows up.” Maddeningly, it was another nine hours before the
Atlas
popped into the system. Celesta did the math in her head and realized the next formation in the taskforce was still another twenty-one hours away at the earliest. She was just about to have her first watch stand down for a four-hour break before beginning the operation to make sure they were fresh, but the Darshik apparently had other plans.

“Contact!” Adler exclaimed again, drawing an annoyed look from Barrett. Celesta also would have preferred a more measured, calm demeanor from her tactical officer.

“What do you have, Lieutenant Commander?” Barrett asked in exasperation after Adler failed to elaborate on what she’d seen on the sensor display.

“Unknown thermal contact moving on a crossing course ahead of us.” Adler composed herself. “Putting it on the main. Computer estimates distance at just over four hundred thousand kilometers and increasing.”

“Looks like one of the random patrols we’re to be looking out for,” Celesta said as the magnified and enhanced thermal picture depicted what looked like three starships running on their main engines coasting through the system. “They don’t appear to be trying to hide, and they’re not turning out to meet us.”

“It looks like they’re lined up in a single column; all their attack formations so far have been phalanx or stacked,” Barrett said. “I agree, Captain, this looks like a patrol that missed our transition. I think we need to operate under the assumption they’ve spotted us and reported our position, however. I’d hate for them to slide by just for their buddies to jump in on top of us.”

“I think we’re going to modify the plan a bit.” Celesta sat back down as she watched the range between her ships and the enemy increasing at a steady rate. “Helm, do I have engine power?”

“Yes, ma’am! RDS is active and ready.”

“Tactical, bracket those ships and begin feeding telemetry to the Shrikes; one missile per target and stand by for my order to go active,” Celesta said. “Look alive, people! We’re going to jump on this target of opportunity and then we’ll move back to our original plan. Coms! Send a message to our other ships via tight-beam laser that when they see our Link go active that’s the signal to begin the operation as planned.”

“Aye, ma’am.”

“Nav, plot me a course that will put us right up behind those ships, maximum performance,” Celesta said, her adrenaline starting to spike as things were about to go live.   

“Course plotted on last known locations,” the nav specialist said. “It’s going to be a bit fluid since we’ll be doing updated via the passive sensors and we’re not—”

“I understand the risks,” Celesta cut him off. “Helm, execute your new course and be ready to make instant adjustments. All ahead full.”

“All engines ahead full, aye!” The
Icarus
surged forward on a wave of gravimetric distortion, quickly reeling in the ships that had already passed them and were heading back into the inner system.

“Let me have a running estimated range to target,” Celesta ordered.

Lieutenant Commander Adler looked distressed and didn’t answer right away.

“Tactical!”

“Targets are gone, Captain,” Adler said after a moment. “They disappeared from passive sensors and now there’s no trace of them on thermals … that shouldn’t be possible even if they did a full engine shutdown.”

“They jumped away,” Barrett said. “The question is, did they spot us, or was this part of a predetermined course?”

“Helm, zero thrust,” Celesta ordered. “Steady as she goes, no braking maneuver … just maintain your heading for now.” She was just buying herself a few moments to think while not having her ship dead in space. She could either alter her course and start the mission as they’d originally planned, or she could use the superior speed and acceleration of the RDS to try and relocate the patrol and try to take it out prior to the main body of the fleet arriving. Three less ships was not insignificant, but there was also no guarantee her destroyer would be successful in taking out all three.

“Helm, come about onto your original course, ahead one-half,” she said. “Coms! Inform Flight OPS that they’re to begin deploying our Jacobson drones.”

“Aye, Captain,” Ellison said.

“Back to the original plan?” Barrett asked.

“We don’t have the luxury of a hunting expedition right now,” Celesta said. “The fleet isn’t that far behind us, and we’re going to need the drone data sooner than later. OPS! Initiate the Link. Put all of our received drone data onto it once it starts coming in along with our own sensor data.”

“Link active, ma’am,” Accari said. “Flight OPS is reporting all drones have been launched and are inbound to the target area.”

Celesta watched on the screen as all her expensive Jacobson drones began to fan out away from the ship as they flew at maximum acceleration down into the system. Once they were within the orbit of the sixth planet, all the drones would bring up their active sensors and begin to map out the enemy positions near the objective while also, hopefully, causing one hell of a distraction that would allow the three destroyers to move down to be of better use when the main body of the fleet arrived.

She thought back again to the three ships she’d lost track of, her instincts still wanting to hunt them down. Logic overruled her instincts, however, as she knew time wasn’t on her side. There was no doubt in her mind there was a CIS asset somewhere out there observing everything, and she’d rather not have to explain to her superiors why she had been unable to prep the system for their arrival as had been her one and only task.

“Receiving Link updates from the
Atlas
and
Hyperion
,” Accari said. “Adding their drone data to our threat board. Both ships are underway and moving into position.”

Over the next four hours the crew watched as the projected tracks of the drones reached out from their three-ship formation. It would be another six hours at least before the tiny ships would fire up their active sensors and give them a much clearer picture of what they were dealing with further down the system. So far all they could really tell from the passive sensors was that there did indeed appear to be a substantial Darshik presence about where the Ushin had said it would be.

“First of the drones are going active,” Accari reported, stifling a yawn as Celesta walked back onto the bridge after grabbing a quick meal in the wardroom. “We’ll have a much clearer picture of the enemy numbers once they update on the Link.”

“When are the first ships of the main body supposed to arrive?” Celesta asked as she sat down.

“Still another twelve hours away at the earliest if they departed on schedule,” Accari said.

“Call up your relief, Mr. Accari,” Celesta said. “You too, Lieutenant Commander Adler. I want first watch rotating out for five-hour breaks and I want everyone rested and ready when the rest of the fleet arrives. I don’t expect we’ll see any action until they do, but sleep in your uniforms anyway.”

There was some grumbling but her crew didn’t question her orders, and soon the relief watch officers began trickling onto the bridge to receive turnover and begin their own long, tense watch. Sitting in an enemy-controlled system while all was quiet was worse than a running battle. At least that’s what most of the spacers said until they were actually
in
a running battle.

“Captain, I think you should take this chance to get some sleep,” Barrett leaned over and whispered. “We’ll need you fresh.” Celesta opened her mouth to argue and then the weight of her exhaustion and the stress of sitting in an occupied system seemed to crush in from all sides. She turned to her XO and nodded once, standing to leave.

“XO, you have the bridge.”

****

Celesta had only slept for a little over three hours, but she felt enormously refreshed as she strode back onto the bridge in a clean uniform and a mug of coffee grasped in her left hand.

“Report!”

“Drones have gone active and the data is just now coming over the Link,” Ensign Accari said. She looked at him suspiciously, but the young officer did appear to be fresh and rested. It wouldn’t be unusual for him to wait until she left the bridge and then just stay on duty.

“How does it look so far and are any of the enemy ships reacting to the active sensor net?” she asked, sitting down and logging into her terminal.

“There are a
lot
of targets flying in twelve distinct groupings, all flying along the orbit of the Ushin planet,” Accari said. “There also seems to be no reaction to the drones’ high-powered tactical radars. Not even so much as a directed scan.”

“That’s interesting,” Celesta mused. “Keep me updated as we get better resolution on the makeup of those formations. Has there been any word from either the Ushin planet or their ships that were supposed to meet us here?”

“Negative, Captain,” Accari shook his head. “The only thing making noise in this system right now is us.”

Over the next ten hours the bridge crew was in constant contact with the CIC as the drone sensor network Celesta had employed began to gather more details about the enemy formations. They knew there were at least one hundred and nineteen ships, almost four and a half times the number of Terran ships that would be in the fight and more than twice as many as the Ushin had claimed would be in the system.

The high-resolution radar scans were picking out over sixty of the cruiser-class vessels they’d already tangled with, along with a more or less even distribution of what looked like smaller frigates and support craft. The emitted radiation scans of each formation were inconclusive given the range the drones were operating from, but she could see that over two-thirds of the enemy armada was showing signs of active weaponry. So why weren’t they reacting to the drones? They knew from the previous engagements that the Darshik could detect their RF-based sensors, so why weren’t any ships coming out to investigate?

“OPS, I want one of our Jacobsons reconfigured to try and slip in through the gaps of the Darshik formation. I want eyes on the Ushin planet,” Celesta said. Something didn’t smell right about the entire situation, but she couldn’t put her finger on it. The hell of it was she had no idea if this new behavior she was seeing in the ships down in the system was at all normal. Their lack of knowledge about the Darshik, and in fact their new Ushin allies, was something that she felt was an avoidable and potentially dangerous oversight by CENTCOM. It was one thing to enter into a protection pact, but they’d committed most of their combat-ready forces without much due diligence that she could see and now they were already facing more than double the ships they had accounted for.

“Ready to upload the new parameters, ma’am,” Accari said. “Flight OPS will send it in the next burst transmission. We just want to divert one drone?”

“Yes,” Celesta nodded. “Just the one. It may not make it through, but I want to see what the state of the surface is.”

“The closest Jacobson should be on its way down to the planet within the next forty minutes,” Accari said. “We also have some handshake requests on the Link. Four distinct queries.”

“Confirmed, Captain,” Ellison said over his shoulder from the com station. “Leading elements from the rest of the taskforce are emerging from the jump point.”

“The drones are already raising a hell of a racket down near their lines,” Celesta said. “Let’s keep our own emissions to a minimum; passive sensors only and directional burst transmissions when needed. If the Darshik move at the new arrivals, a few more ships broadcasting as a distraction won’t make much of a difference. Lieutenant Ellison, please tell the new arrivals to pass along that we’ve seen at least three Darshik ships free-flying through the system but have lost track of them.”