Resilience (Warner's World Book 6) (55 page)

Jake shone his helmet light up and down each column in the rack trying to see if there was a malfunction with one of the pods. This was the most likely cause. The MagGrab was the interface between the transport ship below and the ship’s magazine. Once it lifted the missile into the bottom of the magazine, the autoloader took over to move it to its assigned section. If the autoloader stopped for any reason the MagGrab would automatically stop too.

The gantry ran the entire width of the rack and Jake had now reached the end and had not spied any obvious problems. But the columns were stacked 20 high. So it was over 33m to the top and Jake’s helmet light was struggling to provide enough illumination at the top. He reached into his backpack and pulled out the heavy duty torch that was always in there. He shone it up at the top and started walking back the way he came, inspecting each column in turn.

“Found it” he hailed. “But it’s the fucking top row. I’m going to need some help.”

“OK I’m coming” advised Tracy. She ducked into Val’s small office. Val was on her communicator, but Val could see by the expression on Tracy’s face that she needed to speak with her in a hurry. Val muted her call and Tracy said “Got a problem up in S1 magazine. I need to help Jake.”

“OK I’ll take over in a sec” said Val.

A few minutes later Jake hailed Tracy “Over here.”

Tracy came along side on the narrow gantry and followed the direction of Jake’s torch up to the top of the 4
^th
column. The top pod’s side was ajar. It was supposed to be sealed.

“Probably hasn’t housed properly” suggested Jake. “Ladies first?”

“You know this leading from the front business is overrated” she said with a smile, but she raised her left leg and began climbing up the ladder.

As Jake began to follow he quipped “Oh I don’t mind following.”

“You know I’m spoken for” said Tracy as she continued to climb.

“I live in hope.”

A bemused smile came over Tracy’s face but it didn’t stay there long. As she neared the top she stopped just short and with her helmet light scanned down the length of the pod, all five metres of it. “This doesn’t look good Jake.”

Jake climbed up behind her and was level with the next row down where there ran a small 30cm wide platform along the length of the pod. He extended his left leg and swung over onto the platform and grabbed the rail that ran along the top. He shuffled along to the front and craned his helmeted head just enough so as to see inside.

“Yeah, looks like it could just roll out if we open the side panel” said Jake.

“That won’t do at all.”

“You can say that again. It’s too risky to rotate the mechanism.”

“Agreed.”

“If you activate the auxiliary chains, I’ll stay up here.”

Tracy knew about them and had been shown once but had never actually done it before. She made her way back down and opened the control panel at the base of the column. She set the control option to audio and synced her comms to the panel. “Panel, activate chains” she hailed. The clanking of the auxiliary chains wasn’t heard in the vacuum but Tracy confirmed that each of the three chain loops were moving along the top beam by the small flashing light on each chain housing.

“Look out Jake” hailed Tracy.

“I see them.”

Tracy climbed back up by which time the three sets of chains had been moved into their respective positions in line with the top, mid and bottom hold points on the missile. It was a fiddly job with bulky gloves and one that would require some time to fasten all three chains.

“Tracy” hailed Val. “You gotta get out of there pronto. Enemy have warped in.”

“Shit” hailed back Tracy “we have to secure this missile. And we have another out on the MagGrab.”

“Not any more” hailed Val. “I’ve ditched it. The MagGrab’s retracted. Secure that missile and get back inside.”

“Watch” hailed Val to the command centre “We’ve got two personnel in the S1 mag and a loose missile. Trying to secure now.”

Mandy had the watch and was already in a heightened state because of the enemy. She was currently in the command centre on her own. The battle stations siren was blaring. “Oh shit” she said out loud as Felix sat down in his defensive BS chair and Crystal plonked down into the offensive spot.

“Magazine’s offline” confirmed Felix.

“Where are the hostiles” demanded Dave as he jogged in with Rihan behind him.

“93K bearing 111, 17 above” responded Crystal. “16 bogey’s…8 caps, 8 lights.”

“They’ve pinged us” advised Felix. “We should cloak asap.”

“Order transports to the other side” directed Dave. He was about to continue but Mandy interjected.

“We’ve got a problem. There’s a missile loose in the S1 magazine. We’ve two loggies in there” advised Mandy. Her mind was racing to work up a plan. She was hoping Dave would tell her what to do but when she saw his expectant look, she realised that it would be up to her to formulate a plan.

“ETA for enemy to intercept?” she asked Felix.

“14 minutes if they start moving now….they are moving…and it’s this way.”

“Val” she hailed and when Val responded she continued “get whoever you need down to the mag and ensure that missile is stowed correctly. Flush it if you have to. But do it real quick – someone will be firing within 14 minutes and maybe a lot sooner.”

“I’m on my way” responded Val. She grabbed the suit that was always in her office and put it on while hailing for several of her staff to meet her at the S1 magazine entrance.

Val arrived at the S1 entrance to find three of her staff also arriving. “Seal up. Follow me.” Once inside they aimed for the fourth column where all the light was. When Val looked up she could see Jake and Tracy perched on the narrow walkway right up at the top. The missile was now attached to the chains but it looked like they were having trouble rehousing it.

“Don’t waste time on it Trace” hailed Val.

“Where are you?” hailed Tracy. She wasn’t even aware Val was below – the vacuum killed all sound, even the banging sound that otherwise would have been heard as they rocked the swinging missile over to the pod.

“Below you.”

“Great, we could do with some extra hands.”

“Forget that. Both of you come down now.”

“You can’t just leave it here swinging.”

“I don’t intend to. Just hurry on down and I’ll show you.”

Jake and Tracy climbed back down. Tracy received a pat on the back from Val. “Here, haul that missile all the way up.” Tracy obliged. “Rotate the section.” Tracy interrogated the control panel looking for the control to do so. “Here, let me” hailed Val. The rack’s mechanism began to rotate the pods. The empty pod came back down on the right hand side. Val hit the override to prevent the empty pod from being flushed when it reached the bottom on the right side. She let it rotate across to the bottom on the left hand side and stopped it.

“OK everyone, we need to man handle that pod out of the rack” hailed Val.

“This thing weighs a ton” complained Jake. He was currently at the far end with Tracy. Val was at the front end with her other staff.

“Val you need to hurry” hailed Mandy. Val and the rest of her staff had to hold on tight to the pod as the ship accelerated and changed direction. “We’re redeploying now.”

Val rolled her eyes at the late warning. “We are…won’t be long” hailed back Val. “OK I’m going to lower the missile back down into the pod. We need to guide it in, if need be.” It didn’t take much time to lower the pod the 30 metres so that it was just above the pod, but it took an agonisingly long time to juggle it back into the pod.

“I need those missiles online in three” hailed Dave to Val. “One way or another.”

“The top won’t shut” hailed Jake.

“Disconnect it” ordered Val. “Use those hinge releases.”

“Val did you hear me” hailed Dave.

“Wilco” hailed Val. There was a slight rise in the tone of her voice, but so far she was keeping her cool.

When Jake hit the hinge release the top slid off and crashed down through the empty space between the autoloader rails landing on the floor way below where the flushed pods ended up.

“Tracy, Jake you’re going to have climb back over the missile.”

They clambered back over the top of the missile. Tracy was half way when the ship accelerated and changed direction. Tracy lost her balance and slipped on the smooth round surface of the missile, crashing her helmet into the adjacent pods. She was knocked out cold. Jake too lost his balance and fell on top of her. Thankfully he remained conscious.

“Trace” hailed Val. Jake got to his feet, checked her vitals, announced “She’s OK” and dragged Tracy onto the gantry.

“Out, everyone out” hailed Val.

As the others dragged the limp body of Tracy out of the magazine Val hit the control to rotate the pod counter-clockwise so the pod was now over the flush position. She prayed the lack of a top would not be a problem. She wasn’t 100% sure but now was not the time to worry about that. She thumped the flush control and ran down the gantry. The others had already exited the entrance chamber. She hit the control to open the inside door and once inside wacked the control to exit back into the ship’s starboard hull.

“About time” said Dave as he saw the alert about the S1 magazine disappear from his screen. “Fire” he ordered.

The initial salvo of missiles from the carrier and caps caught the enemy off-guard. They had thought they were heading straight for the Federation ships but now they were being engaged from their right flank at near max range.

The rogan commander, Rear Admiral Lintus Begenitis, had done his homework and knew that he would not have much of a chance to hit the enemy with his shorter ranged missiles unless the Federations ships kept coming towards him. So he held fire for one minute and when he saw the Federation ships turning, he refrained from an offensive strike. He then ordered his fleet to slow and pushed out his fighters, who immediately fired defensively at the oncoming missiles.

“They’re learning” said Dave in the command centre. “Still no sign of any enemy transports?”

“No Sir” replied Mandy.

“They’re recovering their fighters” announced Felix.

“Slow to one third” commanded Dave. He needed to shed momentum before changing direction and he knew one way or another he would need to change direction.

“They’re turning” announced Crystal. “Heading our way.”

“Looks like they are here just to fight us” said Dave. “How long to cloak?”

“Three minutes” advised Mandy.

“OK here’s what we will do” said Dave.

The hasty battle plan was transmitted less than a minute before they cloaked. As soon as they did so, Toyah launched most of her bombers with two squadrons of fighters and as soon as she gave the all clear the pilot warned everyone to hold on while he changed direction and accelerated to burst speed.

The 96 bombers left behind shook out into an arrowhead formation facing the oncoming enemy ships while the 24 fighters flew a racetrack nearby, ready to support as required.

All eyes in the command centre were on the holo and in particular on the relative position and direction of the enemy and friendly ships. Dave’s plan relied on the enemy doing either of two courses of action (COA). The first COA would see the enemy continue on their current heading. Dave did not think this likely. But if they did they would be struck by the marauders. The second and most likely COA would see the enemy slow, put out CAP and change direction.

Dave had no idea as to what direction, but he was now moving his group to the point where he believed the enemy would get to when they realised they had no valid detections and slowed down to the point where they could release their CAP.

“They’re slowing” announced Felix. It was a little sooner than Dave had thought but Dave was at least happy with the fact that he had guessed right on his opponent’s intention. Dave observed the ETA displayed over their waypoint – two minutes to go.

Chase was updating the screen with the projected position of the enemy in two minutes. “12K range” advised Chase.

“Thanks” said Dave, appreciative of Chase’s efforts. “Pilot, once we reach the waypoint, pursue those enemy ships and close to within beam range. Don’t slow till we’re within range.”

“You got it. Hold on folks” said the pilot.

“Launch the comms probe” ordered Dave. This would broadcast new orders to the fighters and bombers. They were now tasked to close within 30K of the enemy and launch their strike. They would then change direction away from the enemy, recloak and make their way back to RV Alpha.

“Turning now” advised the pilot. The big ship’s engines fought against the lateral and vertical thrusters as it changed direction. The gravity dampeners were stress tested like no other time before.

“Aagh” cried Rihan and several others as their bodies succumbed to the intense effect. For Dave it felt like some giant was squeezing his rib cage. But then it eased off only to be followed by another bout caused by the burst speed.

Mandy was watching the holo while wincing with some pain. She was finding it difficult to focus on the transparent range bubble around her ship’s icon as it approached the enemy ships. “In Range” she called out and the ship began to decelerate much to everyone’s relief.

The enemy fleet was occupying a cube of space measuring roughly 2K x 3K x 1K. To allow for this and the space that his group occupied, which was half those dimensions, Dave had agreed to get within 8K of the centre of the enemy space. With the Resolute 500kms ahead and the Dominator 500kms behind, they should still be able to strike all the enemy ships.

But much would depend on the relative speeds and directions. It had not been possible to pre-allocate targets given the time available and the uncertainty of where every ship would end up. So each ship would engage as it saw fit. There was a risk of double ups but there was no other way that Dave could see in the limited time he had to make the decision. The whole group would continue with their current bearing and any enemy ships not destroyed would be struck by the marauders.

When Crystal and Felix fired the Audacity’ six beam weapons, the sector of space they were in was lit up by a series of laser beams. All up, the group had 16 beam weapons. With the relative speeds there was only time for one shot each before the ships moved out of range.