Retribution (40 page)

The Resolute would make the attack and the Phantom would only intervene if needed either in defence or under command from Dave. How he wished it was possible to communicate with Aubrey now. The system was rich with targets. Even with the nukes, he didn’t think they would be able to take them all on. He felt this uneasiness come over him and he didn’t like the feeling one bit.

“So we ignore any ships on the far side?” asked Crystal.

“Yep” replied Dave as he peered at the holo display.

Crystal and John were in earnest discussion trying to prepare the target list. “The orbital dockyard’s a must” said John. “I reckon we can take it out with ten.”

“Fine” said Crystal “Lock it in. Next priority should be the three undamaged caps and then the five undamaged frigates.”

“So what 20 per cap and ten per frigate?”

“Yes”

“That makes for 110 missiles” said John “120 with the dockyard. We still have another eight damaged caps and 12 damaged frigates.”

“Halve the allocation for these. That should add 140 missiles. Total is now up to 260.”

“Where not going to have enough left for the ground targets.”

“We can position for a beam attack on Bogey 1, the nearest undamaged cap. That will save 20” said Crystal. “Is 60 defensive missiles enough Sir and can we leave the ground targets to the Phantom?”

Dave pondered. “Yeah I think so. Look, if we need to, we warp back behind the second biggest asteroid, what’s it called?”

“Chelora 7” answered Jasmin and added with a wry smile “very original if I say so.”

Dave chuckled. “Yes, so we can warp back there and come again. How many hours to warp there?”

“Five” responded Chase.

“OK we’ll need to be ready to relay warp coordinates to the Phantom as soon as we open fire” said Dave. “But I’ll make the call to execute the warp. If it’s not too hot we’ll launch the fighters and use their missiles to finish off any survivors. Are we good then?”

Crystal looked to John who was still making some allocations. He looked up at her and nodded. “Yes Sir we’re good to go.”

Ivan had the watch and was assessing the manoeuvre to line up on the nearest undamaged cap. It was a good 13,000 k’s away. “Sir I don’t think we should try for the beam attack. We’ll end up within beam range of these other ships here and if they are active we could get burned bad.”

“Agreed. You better allocated 20 to that target Crystal. We’ll have to make do with 40 defensive missiles.”

“We could reduce the allocation on some of the others” she suggested.

Dave looked at the time. “No it’s almost 1000. Lock it in.”

“Jasmin, the cyber target is that closest undamaged cap” advised Dave.

“Right Sir…done.”

“Li are your limas right to go?” hailed Dave.

“Yes they are but they won’t be launched till you give the word.”

“Excellent.”

“John, do you have the ground target list ready to send to the Phantom?”

“Nearly… done.”

“And the warp coords?”

“Their ready to go” advised Crystal.

“Good. So we wait.” Dave eased back a little and took a deep breath. He closed his eyes. The uneasiness had not gone away and memory of his nightmare began to play. An involuntary spasm went through his body. He knew he had to control this fear. He consciously shook his head to release the tension in his neck.

He repeated the invocation to his guru that he usually made at the end of his daily meditation. ‘Everything I think, do and say I offer up to you, as I offer up my day.’ He repeated his mantra in time with his breath. In his mind’s eye he saw the void and its immense space. The few sparkles of light almost matched the layout of the planets on the holo. He smiled and let it go. His breathing was now steady and rhythmic.

A minute later he opened his eyes. A few seconds later the timer ticked over to 1000. “Fire” he commanded.

“Missiles away” called out John.

“Cloak deactivated” said Ivan.

“Cyber Attack initiated” called out Jasmin at the same time. “Messages to Phantom sent” she added.

“Enemy missiles launched” announced Crystal.

“Defensive, targeting ours” added John.

But the three ships within 10,000kms had no chance to respond effectively. The flight time of the Torads was a little more than a minute. With one in four warheads being nukes, all three were destroyed.

In space, without a medium, there is no effective blast effect from a nuke. The real damage is the electromagnetic pulse (EMP) and radiation which can paralyse a ship’s electronics. All warships are hardened against this to a degree but a direct hit that penetrates the ships armour and then explodes can be catastrophic. And that was exactly what the Mark 31s were designed to do. It also makes the ship so much more vulnerable to a non-nuclear warhead. The mix was proving very deadly indeed.

“The dockyard’s gone” said John. He was calling out results as best he could but events soon overtook him. He stopped and everyone focussed on the tally above the holo.

“Bogeys 4 and 5, CAPS, accelerating to us, range 19,000. ETA to our missile intercept 2 minutes. ETA to their beam intercept 4 minutes” announced Crystal. These were two of the undamaged CAPS and posed a serious threat.

Dave scanned the other results.

“Bogeys 8, 11 and 14 preparing to warp” announced Crystal. Dave knew there was little he could do to stop them now. He was actually surprised that there were only three. But then he saw why in the tally figures. Most of the already damaged craft had been destroyed. It was a wipe out.

“Do we warp back Sir” asked Ivan who was getting anxious.

“No” replied Dave. “Aubrey” he hailed. “Take out Bogey’s 4 and 5, 20 for 1.”

“WILCO” came back Aubrey in her determined battle voice.

“Phantom engaging” called out Crystal.

“Hits from our missiles on Bogey 4 and 5. Both slowing” advised Crystal. “Bogey 4 preparing to warp. Bogey 5 continuing. ETA Phantom strike 1 minute. Bogey 5 firing defensive missiles…turning away…accelerating…she’s heading for the far side. She’s not going to make it. Hits…she’s gone.”

“Two caps (Bogeys 31 and 32) and three lights (Bogeys33 to 35) bustering from the far side” announced John after receiving the update from their probe. Range “75,000.” That was within Torad range but beyond the enemy’s missile range.

Crystal looked earnestly at Dave. He didn’t need to ask to know what she wanted. “20 for 1 on each of the caps” ordered Dave. He was now out of Torads. “Aubrey, Bogeys 33 to 35 are yours 10 for 1.”

“WILCO. We’ll only have 30 left.”

“Understood.”

“Missiles away” announced Crystal. “Phantom firing” she added.

“Boy are they moving” said Ivan. “Do we launch CAP?”

“Yes thanks Ivan” said Dave. “Li, launch one flight as CAP.”

“WILCO.”

Charlie flight who was already on the launchers took off. As the Resolute maintained its geo orbit they circled around her in a race track, ready to fire their Javelins if needed. These were now the only missiles Dave had at his direct command. He hated being so naked but was grateful nonetheless. He recalled how he wished he had fighter protection on the Chicago. ‘We might have saved her’ he thought.

The enemy ships were bustering from 75,000kms away moving at their max speed of 70 kps. The Torads were now 30,000 kms away heading towards the oncoming bogeys and moving at 150 kps. That meant an effective intercept speed of 220kps with a closing distance of 45,000kms. The display above the holo was ticking over the closing distance at a prodigious rate. The ETA to intercept was now three and a half minutes for the Resolute’s strike and four and a half for the Phantom’s.

“Bogey’s launching missiles…120 defensive missiles” announced Crystal. She glanced at Dave with a concerned look. She knew that the chances of their missiles getting through against three times their number were slim. Dave knew this too. He was more worried by the fact that they probably had twice that number still ready to fire.

“When will they be able to fire at us?” asked Dave.

“Less than 5 minutes” responded John.

Dave did the math. Five minutes till they fire. Another six to reach us makes 11 minutes. Less one to warp up. Less three to recover CAP, meant he had to decide in seven minutes whether to stand or warp away. ‘It’s doable’ he thought. He wanted to force the enemy to expend its missiles before he warped away. Then he could warp back and deal with them on more even terms.

He thought about standing but even with all his Lightnings out he could only fire 96 Javelins and they would be overwhelmed by the 200 plus enemy missiles he expected they would fire.

“Ivan, as soon as the enemy fires its missiles at us recover the CAP. Once they are in, warp up.”

“Aubrey, as soon as the enemy fires we’re going to warp back. I need to recover CAP and then I’ll give the word.”

“Roger that.”

Just over a minute later Crystal announced “Six leakers – four at Bogey 31 and 2 at 32.” Another minute went by. “Two hits on Bogey 31, none on 32. Bogey 31 is slowing.” The lagging Bogey 31 was hived from the rest of the group. The semi-transparent sphere around its icon, which depicted its effective missile range, could be seen moving slower than that of the others.

‘Damm it’ thought Dave. He would now have to wait longer before it would fire. The margin of error had narrowed.

“Six Phantom hits on Bogeys 33, 5 on 34 and 1 on 35” announced Crystal

“Enemy missiles away” announced John “Bogey 31 is yet to fire” he added.

“Sir we need to recover the CAP” advised Ivan.

“Wait” said Dave.

Ivan was tapping his workstation nervously. Thirty seconds went by. “Sir we must recover now.”

“Do it” said Dave annoyed. Sure enough Bogey 31 did not fire its missiles. “Damm it” said Dave out loud, his frustration clear to all. Ivan took charge and ordered Li to recover the CAP and advised Aubrey to prepare to warp.

“Four minutes to ETA of incoming enemy missiles” announced John.

“Three minutes to ETA of incoming enemy missiles” announced John.

“Two minutes to ETA of incoming enemy missiles” announced John.

The holo still showed Lima Charlie 3 outside the Resolute. “What’s happening to the recovery Li” hailed Dave in an annoyed manner.

“Final approach now Sir. Be on board directly.”

“One minute to ETA…” announced John.

But he was drowned out by Dave’s command “Prepare to warp.”

Lima Charlie 3 was still hovering above the hangar floor when the doors closed. It bounced down hard and the hangar crew ran to secure its footings. The pilot’ strain showed on his face as he climbed down onto the floor. Li ushered him to sit down.

“Thirty seconds to impact” announced John.

“Warp in 5, 4, 3, 2 warp” called out Ivan.

Chapter 14. Resolute to Chelora 7 1030, 29 June

Dave was annoyed as he made his way to the aft elevator and began the descent to F deck. It was going to be so much harder now to achieve victory with Bogey 31 still in possession of most of its missiles. He knew that was down to bad luck but he was annoyed nonetheless. He was also annoyed that the ship’s safety had been put in peril due to sloppy recovery work on the part of the pilot of Lima Charlie Three.

Part of him wanted to yell the crap out of him. Thankfully he had the elevator to himself and no one was there to see how heated he had become.

When he walked into Li’s office, which also served as the control centre for the fighter squadron, Li apologised “I’m sorry Sir.”

“We can’t afford to have that happen ever again” said Dave in a loud voice that was getting louder. “That pilot was this close to being left behind. Do you understand Li. I don’t have a choice. I cannot jeopardise this ship for one pilot. You make sure that they understand that. Three minutes is what we agreed for recovery is it not?”

“Yes Sir that’s right” said Li hoping his softer tone would help calm down his boss. But it hadn’t.

“Well you tell them that they had better switch on or they will be left behind.” Dave turned to head back out and saw all the pilots and crew were standing out in the hangar listening to his little tirade. He stormed out and the bodies parted out of his way. He never looked back.

As the elevator rose back up he stomped his foot on the floor. He was annoyed at himself for losing control back there. He was taking out his frustration on his subordinates. ‘Never a good thing’ he said to himself. ‘Get a grip Dave. You need to think clearly. How are you going to tackle this enemy?’

Ivan was waiting for Dave back outside his office on A deck. He was concerned. He had seen Dave angry before but not quite like this. As Dave approached he was grateful that Dave appeared less heated. “Are you all right Sir?” he asked.

“Yeah, yeah I just… got annoyed. I balled out Li. I shouldn’t have. It’s not really his fault.”

“Lima Charlie Three was late.”

“Yeah he was. OK what are we going to do to defeat these ships?”

“How about we put our heads together in the briefing room.”

“OK get ‘em in.”

Ten minutes later it was Crystal who had the answer. “So we warp back in. We beam Bogey 31. Phantom beams Bogey 32 and the fighters take out the enemy frigates. Simple really” she added with a matter of fact smile.

“What’s to stop the enemy from decimating our fighters?” asked Chase. “Even without the two enemy caps, three frigates is a big ask of twelve fighters.”

“Three frigates with a full load of missiles yes” said Crystal “but these suckers have just shot their bolts. I estimate they will only have maybe ten or at most twenty missiles each.”

“They could be rearming right now for all we know” chimed in Jasmin.

“They could but even with fifty or sixty missiles our fighter will have to expend every missile they have in defence” countered Chase. “They will then have to recover, rearm and relaunch to press home the attack. You can bet the enemy ships will use that time to warp away.”

“Is that so bad?” asked Jasmin.

“Where looking to destroy them all, remember” said Chase, a little annoyed.

Ivan shook his head at Chase. “There was no need for that put down.”