New Frontiers (Expansion Wars Trilogy, Book 1) (7 page)

So turning tail and running was the only viable option in the short term while she was facing a numerically superior enemy of unknown capability, but she needed to come up with something else and come up with it fast. Her hope was that she would get a response soon from her still-transmitting message, but the longer the engagement went on the less likely that seemed. Whatever the motivation for the warning, they weren’t talking.

“The support frigates have transitioned out of the system, ma’am,” Accari said after another four hours. “However, the
Vought
has dropped off the Link. Waiting on confirmation from the
Midlands
as to what might have been the issue. They were still twenty-two hours from the jump point at last update.” Celesta clenched her hands. The
Vought
was a heavy assault cruiser that probably should have been retired from service six decades ago. It was as likely she’d floundered and lost power while trying to run as it was she was destroyed by the enemy, a term Celesta had to now concede was appropriate.

“Direct message from the
Midlands
,” Ellison reported. “The
Vought
was destroyed by what they’re calling an
energy lance
of some sort. After it had destroyed the
Vought,
the ship vanished.”

“Vanished?” Celesta turned to glare at her com officer, her mouth going dry at the news of a lost ship.

“That’s what the report says, ma’am,” Ellison said helplessly.

“
All ships, this is Agent Uba aboard the CIS Prowler
,” the familiar voice overrode their com system and was broadcast over the bridge speakers. “
The enemy vessels are apparently attempting to capture Terran ships. Do not let them close on you. The Leighton has been captured and somehow transported out of the system while the Vought was lost completely … I suggest to the taskforce commander that we break contact and escape while possible. The Prowler is on the way out of the system now. This has to be reported to CENTCOM. Agent Uba out.
”

“Coms, broadcast the emergency withdraw order,” Celesta said without hesitation. “Emergency short hops are authorized … just tell them to get away as best they can.”

“Captain, our four bogies are accelerating,” Lieutenant Commander Adler said. “They’ll overtake us before the X-Ray jump point at their current rate.”

Celesta looked at her own display to verify the information herself. “Helm, zero thrust,” she said. “Bring the prow about to course one-eight-zero by zero, attitude jets only.”

“Engines answering zero thrust, aye,” the helmsman said after pulling the throttles all the way back. “Bringing the
Icarus
about to course one-eight-zero by zero.” The manual course commands would have the ship rotate about on her Z-axis so she would be flying in the same direction but stern first.

“Tactical, optimum range for the first volley of Shrikes, if you please,” Celesta said, the familiar adrenaline of combat beginning to course through her.

“All four tangos are within optimum performance envelope for the Shrikes,” Adler said.

“Very good, Lieutenant Commander,” Celesta said. “Stagger fire pattern, twenty-second delay between shots, maximum yield.”

“Parameters set, Captain.”

“Fire!”

“Missiles one through four are away,” Adler said. “Missiles five through eight standing by.”

“Coms, broadcast to our remaining ships that they are weapons free but their priority is to escape,” Celesta said.

“Second volley is away!” Adler said.

“Confirm tracking,” Celesta ordered.

“Tracks confirmed,” Accari said. “All eight missiles are burning hot and tracking true.”

“Helm, bring the
Icarus
to bear on her original course and then run the mains to full emergency acceleration,” Celesta ordered. “Nav, begin a running update on acceptable snap-jump locations if we have to bug out immediately.”

“Disabling safety locks now,” the helmsman said. “Engines answering full emergency thrust.” The pronounced rumbling of the decks let Celesta know that the
Icarus
was now giving all she could to stay ahead of their pursuers.

“First volley impacts targets in … five hours, seventeen minutes,” Adler said and put the clock up on the main display so that Celesta could see it without having to ask. She nodded her approval to her tactical officer before returning her attention to the Link updates. The
Icarus
and the
Midlands
were showing as the only ships in the system. She didn’t know if the Prowler was still hiding out near the perimeter but she did know that she’d lost two ships, one apparently captured by the enemy. This was a whole new fresh hell from the previous alien that had appeared on their doorstep and had just decided to kill as many of them as it could.

“I’ll be interested to see what the intel folks have to say about the sensor feeds after this,” Barrett said quietly. “
Another
alien species coming into the Xi’an System and kicking us around … and this time it looks like they’re abducting ships just for good measure.”

“It at least solves the mystery about how they brought the
Ares
here.” Celesta swallowed hard, trying to keep the bile down at the thought of all the spacers she’d just lost. It was inexcusable. She’d flown them right into a trap, so confident was she that it was just a bizarre ploy by the AU. If she had followed the protocols that she had helped develop, sat back near the jump point and let the Jacobson drones make the initial incursion she might have avoided one of the worst mistakes by a Fleet officer since the beginnings of the Phage War.

She would certainly be relieved of command, but that was the least of her worries. There was a new enemy now. Someone who could prove to be worse than the Phage and, to make matters more complicated, their motivations were even more mysterious than the simple eradication tactics of the previous invaders. Where did they take the
Leighton
? Was the crew still alive? How would she even begin to try and track them down? Her ruminations were interrupted by a startled, sharp inhale from her tactical officer.

“Two enemy ships are now accelerating away from their formation,” Adler reported. “Shrikes are compensating, impact on leading targets now in three hours and decreasing.”

For the next three hours they watched in horrified fascination as two of the enemy ships quickly closed the range. She could see from the high-power radar returns that the ships had an ungainly, blocky appearance and were roughly symmetrical. The sensors on the
Icarus
could not determine the enemy’s method of subluminal propulsion other than it produced a slightly lower thermal signature than their own plasma thrust drives. She checked their velocity and position, quickly running the numbers in her head.

“Helm, engines to zero thrust,” she said after a moment. “OPS, deploy the warp drive. Nav, stand by to execute a snap jump on my command.”

“We’re waiting to see if the Shrikes do any damage?” Barrett asked.

“Correct,” Celesta said. “We have to take something away from this disaster that will be useful to CENTCOM.” 

The
Icarus
continued to fly unpowered as the bridge crew watched tensely, well aware that the data they were getting from the sensor suite on the enemy was at least fifty minutes old. Normally that would have been considered a significant safety buffer against Terran or even Phage ships, but new enemies also came with new and unknown capabilities. The fact they could seem to make entire ships
vanish
from within a star system was enough to make Celesta question whether their twenty-five light minute gap would be any real obstacle for them.

“Weapons impact imminent,” Adler gave the final warning. Since the Shrikes were smart weapons that would track and adjust to targets once they were locked on, and given the distances involved, it wasn’t uncommon for up to a five-minute variation from when they expected the weapon to intercept the target and when it actually did.

“Coms?”

“Still no response, ma’am,” Ellison said. He sounded tired and Celesta knew he wasn’t alone. During the engagement first watch had been on duty for thirty-two hours straight, and there didn’t seem to be any reprieve until they transitioned out of the system. With a completely unknown adversary she just couldn’t risk swapping out critical personnel like she would if it had been a Phage Alpha chasing her.

“The two straggling tangos are braking, reducing speed and—no, they’re veering hard off, ma’am. It looks like they may be trying to reverse course,” Adler reported. “The two others are still on a direct pursuit course. Weapons are running silent so I have no update other than I expect sensor returns on the detonation within ten minutes.”

“Nav, execute emergency warp transition immediately!” Celesta barked sharply.

“Aye aye!” the startled chief said. “Assuming helm control now.” They all felt the mains run to full power as the
Icarus
dipped her prow to aim down below the ecliptic plane and surged to their final transition velocity. It seemed like mere minutes before the vibrations ceased and Celesta could see on the main status board that they were being purged and secured from primary flight mode.

“Two tangos have appeared BEHIND us!” Adler said sharply. “Range is less than one hundred thousand kilometers!”

“Snap fire aft Hornets! Auto-target mode,” Celesta ordered. “Nav!”

“Standby for warp transition!” the chief shouted even as the forward distortion ring began to cause the main display to darken. There was a sharp bucking as the ship vanished from the system and, a moment later, a more pronounced shaking as she reappeared two hundred and fifty light minutes outside the Xi’an System.

“Report!”

“No damage, no casualties, Captain,” Accari read off his master status display. “Engineering is requesting we secure from powered flight mode until they’ve had time to inspect the warp drive.”

“Tell Commander Graham he has ninety minutes and then we’re underway whether he’s finished or not,” Celesta said.

“Aye, ma’am.” Accari pulled his headset back up and began speaking into it.

“How did you know?” Barrett breathed.

“Lucky guess,” Celesta said. “The two trailing ships either left the system or dropped back to give themselves a greater degree of accuracy to try and appear close behind us. Since Agent Uba said they were trying to capture Terran ships, and we hadn’t shown ourselves to be much of a threat, it had to be the latter.”

“That’s not really a lucky guess, ma’am, but whatever you call it you just saved our ass again.” Barrett was still speaking quietly amid the chaos created by a short warp flight on a drive that was not designed to perform such a maneuver. Celesta ignored the well-meaning compliment, still physically ill over the loss of at least two ships under her command.

“Listen up!” she called loudly. “That time limit isn’t just for Engineering. Get with your backshops and get the
Icarus
checked out stem to stern … we have no idea what sensor capabilities the enemy might have so we need to be underway as quickly as possible.”

“I can’t believe this is happening again,” Ellison said as he let his headset slip down around his neck.

Celesta opened her mouth to chastise him, but he’d said it to himself and, honestly, she shared the sentiment. Not even a decade of peace and in the middle of major political upheaval it looked like they had a new alien threat to deal with. She fervently hoped the Prowler, with its extensive sensor capability, was well on its way back to New Sierra with the record of the engagement for CENTCOM to view.

****

“The
Icarus
made an emergency warp jump out of the system.” The sensor operator turned in his seat. “That’s the last taskforce ship to get clear.”

“Not all got clear,” Agent Uba said, pacing the cramped bridge of the CIS Prowler. He’d had to pull rank and, against the Prowler captain’s protests, had ordered them to stay on the edge of the Xi’an System with stealth protocols enabled. The small ship was now sitting just inside the orbit of the outermost planet, just a dark hole in space, her passive sensors soaking in and cataloging every detail, every emission.

It had not been pretty. The
Vought
had been easily run down and had exploded brilliantly when the hull had been pierced by some type of energy beam. The
Leighton
had been disabled by the same type of weapon and then grappled up against one of the enemy ships before both vanished from the system. Hovering above it all was what Agent Uba considered to be the gross incompetence of one Senior Captain Celesta Wright,
Hero
of the Phage War.

She’d led her taskforce into a slaughter, not for a moment thinking that there could be something else in such a notorious region of space other than some prank by the Asianic Union. Then, when the shooting started, the vacuum created by her lack of coherent leadership caused the other commanders to falter and hesitate. He’d been one of those who regarded her as one of the Fleet’s few true warriors, the exact sort of captain you wanted in a situation like what had just happened. Her performance during what he was calling the Fourth Debacle of Xi’an in his head made him question everything he’d ever heard about her.