StarFight 1: Battlestar (27 page)

Jacob noticed the tall, middle-aged black man who sat to Sunderland’s left was attentive and watchful. Good. That was what a good XO should be like. He nodded. “So tell me how the colonists are living on Valhalla. How many population concentrations? Towns, villages and so forth.”

Her expression grew serious. “You wonder how many might be killed by orbital bombardment. The 71,233 colonists are mostly dispersed in rural homesteads in the northern temperate zone of the largest continent. They farm, they cut timber, they trade among themselves. There are seven small villages of a few thousand people.” She paused and looked down at her own armrest screen, then looked up. “The single urban area big enough to be called a city is Stockholm. It has the only landing pad big enough for a spaceship. Shuttles can land in the backcountry of course. Anyway, Stockholm has 12,000 or so people living in it. Do you expect the wasp aliens to attack the colony?”

“Thank you for that information. And yes, I do expect them to
try
to attack Valhalla.” It meant at least half the colonists lived in dispersed areas that would not be subject to nuke bombs. Or the lightning plasma bombs. He tapped a stud on his armrest. “Captain Sunderland, I’m transmitting to you the full record of our battles with the wasp aliens, their ships, their weapons fire, all of it that we encountered. Study it. See the formations we used. And in particular, be aware that the wasp energy beams have a greater range than our ship-mounted lasers.”

She frowned. “That is a bother. My XO and I will study this record along with our Tactical and Weapons people. Thank you for the data.”

Jacob waved. “Just doing what needs to be done. Now for part two. Stop your acceleration out to us. Hold position out by planet seven. Our battle group will join you there,” he said calmly, hoping the woman could tell from his tone that this was a considered choice. “For your information, I have decided to mount a defense of Valhalla by taking position between its moon and the planet, at 200,000 klicks out. There are strong tactical reasons for fighting close to the planet. I look forward to the
Aldertag
joining our group in the next few hours.”

The woman bit her lip. “So do we, Captain Renselaer. It sounds like we have a deadly enemy coming our way.”

“You do. But this battle group will fight, overcome and lose lives if need be in order to defend the colonists of Valhalla. You have my word on that.”

She nodded, her expression deeply serious. “Thank you.
Aldertag
out.”

The image disappeared.

Jacob sat back in his seat, running through his mind all the tactical maneuvers that were possible with a battle group of three frigates, three destroyers, two cruisers and a Battlestar. No one bothered him. No one spoke to him. Perhaps they were all thinking ahead to the coming battle. He knew he was.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Hunter One watched the new imagery transmitted from the Soft Skins. This one said the obvious. There were Soft Skins on world four, the Soft Skin flying nests would protect them, and they wished the Swarm to leave the system. He could not help but release a humor pheromone. Which made its way to the Matron and the twelve Servants in the Flight Chamber. How could such intelligent Soft Skins be so lacking in basic survival understanding?

“Leader,” called the Servant for aberrant social behaviors. “Do we send a reply?”

It seemed pointless. Still, the senior Hunters and Matrons on Nest would expect him to do his best to rid this system of Soft Skin pests before he killed them all. On Nest, some hard shell and soft shell pests had needed only to see the colors of a Swarmer to send them fleeing. Others had fled upon seeing a few die from stinger thrusts. A few required mandible bites. He would give these blind, unhearing Soft Skins a chance to flee.

“Yes. Reply with an image map that tells them to remove the Soft Skins on world four and for all to leave this group of worlds,” he scent cast in a strong flow of signal and territorial pheromones. “Use parts of their image signal if that is worthwhile.”

“Proceeding on creation of the map reply,” the older male replied. “It will be ready in 900 wing beats.”

“Hunter,” called the Matron in a strong flow of sex and aggregation pheromones. “Have your Servants elsewhere on this nest determined how these Soft Skins speak among themselves? It is clear they do, in view of how jointly they move in biting us.”

“They have not,” he scent cast, adding a releaser pheromone to put an end to the issue. They were nearing world four and the clustered Soft Skin sky nests. “We will enter sky battle shortly. If any Soft Skins remain, such as on the surface of world four, my Servants will capture them, sting them into compliance and inform you of their results.”

“Perhaps that is the best sky map for us,” she scent cast softly.

He knew it was. “Speaker To All, scent cast to the other Support Hunters that we attack soon! Tell them to focus their sky bolts and sky light beams on the target I choose. We will kill these flying nests one by one!”

♦   ♦   ♦

Jacob saw the six wasp ships as they swung round the white bulk of Valhalla’s moon. It had been an hour since the wasps had replied to Branstead’s video with an image sequence that said all humans and all human ships must leave the Kepler 10 system. That was not going to happen. He looked ahead. Everyone was at their function post. He looked down. Daisy, Richard and Alicia were all seated and strapped in. Behind them were Carlos and Lori. Jacob looked aside at his seat’s situational holo. The battle group was arranged in a ball of ships with the
Lepanto
at the center. It was a formation that said nothing about their defense and attack plans. Now, with the enemy just 90,000 kilometers away and approaching at 12,000 kilometers per minute, it was time to change things.

“All ships, go to Alert Hostile Enemy status. Weapons go Hot. Kills authorized. Move into Alpha Vortex formation!”

In the holo, the green ship icons of the group moved back, leaving the
Lepanto
, the
Chesapeake
and the
Hampton Roads
at the forefront, arranged in a triangular formation. The
Lepanto
held top slot, with the two cruisers moving down and out to 120 degree angles relevant to his ship. That made their front group a perfect triangle. Behind them the destroyers moved back 500 kilometers and assumed the same triangle formation, but tilted so their firing angle ahead would not hit the rears of the first row of ships. The three frigates moved back a further 500 klicks, and rotated their triangle formation so their front lasers had a clear field of fire. The Vortex formation resembled a long tube with ships arranged in a spiral. The Battlestar and the two cruisers covered the group’s flanks due to having proton lasers on their sides, and on top and bottom for the
Lepanto
. The destroyers had proton lasers at their fronts, with tail CO
2
lasers. And the frigates had CO
2
lasers at their nose and tail. Every ship carried thermonuke-loaded missiles.

Acknowledgments came from every captain. Their images formed a row of faces along the top of the front wallscreen. The face of Joy Jefferson on the
Philippines Sea
looked happy. The woman knew she would be able to hit hard at the alien enemy. And wanted to hit hard! He smiled.

“Captain,” called Richard from below. “Can my people man their Darts? We may need them for boarding a damaged enemy ship. I recall you saying we wished to capture some wasps and some of their signaling equipment.”

He had indeed said that during the all ships video conference during the Alcubierre transit. “Chief O’Connor, order your men to their Darts. No one launches until I say so.”

“Understood!” The man tapped quickly on his armrest, speaking hurriedly into the private comlink reserved for the Marines.

Jacob’s holo cross-section of the
Lepanto
and its decks now showed four red spots lighting up near the rear Engines part of the hull. The Darts would launch out of a single missile silo, one after the other, before turning and aiming for the target ship.

“Captain,” called Rosemary. “The wasp ships are spreading out. They are keeping their hexagon formation but are putting lots of room between each ship. Looks like they aim to envelop us.”

Briefly he wondered why the wasps always tried to englobe his ships. Was this cultural or biological or the function of a rigid command structure? No matter. He was not bound by any rigid rule other than the prime rule—attack and defeat the enemy!

“All ships, move out at 9,000 klicks per minute,” he said, relying on the continuous neutrino comlink to carry his words, just as they carried back the images of each ship captain.

Acknowledgments came. In his holo, the tubular grouping of nine starships moved forward toward the incoming ring of wasp ships. He hoped the wasp ships came within range of his antimatter cannon, but that was unlikely. Just as it was a certainty he would not allow any battle group ship to get within the range of the black hole weapon of the wasp aliens.

It was time to pick a target. “All ships, cross-link your Weapons stations. Maintain weapons fire on the single wasp ship we hit first. Let’s see how quickly we can burn through that damned hull metal!”

“All stations are ready to fire,” Oliver said from Weapons.

“Enemy has slowed to 9,000 kilometers per minute,” called Louise from Navigation. “They are still in ring formation.”

Jacob watched the distance counter get smaller as the two groups of ships moved toward each other. Fifteen thousand, fourteen, thirteen, twelve . . .

“Incoming enemy lasers!” called Oliver.

“All ships, go to jinking and jiggling,” Jacob said firmly, avoiding the temptation to yell. Every ship captain knew how to use their attitude thrusters to push their ship off of a direct line of sight track so as to frustrate enemy gunners.

One green laser beam hit the nose of the
Lepanto
.

“Beam energy deflected by our adaptive optics lenses,” called Joaquin from Life Support.

Now it began
. “Weapons, all ships, fire your lasers at the wasp ship W3 at 140 degrees declination!”

Two green beams from the
Lepanto
were joined by two beams from each cruiser and beams from the destroyers and frigates. That made for twelve green laser beams striking the upper hull of the wasp ship he had selected.

“Hits!” cried Rosemary. “Spectroscope and electro-optics show water and air release. Punch through!”

Jacob focused on the telescopically enlarged image of the log-shaped alien ship whose icon showed W3. Its front ring of laser and lightning tubes were firing back. Like his fleet, the counterfire from the wasps was focusing on the frigate
Aldertag
. Sunderland and her people were at risk of ship destruction.

“
Chesapeake
! Move to block those beams hitting the
Aldertag
. All ships, continue firing on the wasp ship!”

His distance counter gave a separation of 7,213 kilometers. His ships and the wasp ships had slowed again to 900 kilometers per minute, allowing for better targeting on both sides. Yellow lightning bolts and green laser beams streamed against his ships while their own green laser beams and the destroyers’ proton beams concentrated on a single ship. Time to mix things up.

“All ships, go to target rotation! Weapons, move your beams to wasp ship W4 at 160 degrees!”

“Firing,” Oliver called. “Other ships joining my fire.”

“Rotate to the next wasp ship once a minute,” Jacob called to the Brazilian who had shown himself to be a maestro of energy beams. “Skip the giant wasp ship. Its hull is too thick to warrant gas laser attack. Rotate!”

As the wasp ships changed their laser and lightning bolt fire from the sheltered
Aldertag
to the front of the
Chesapeake
, Jacob knew it was time to go to the next step in his plan.

“
Chesapeake
and
Hampton Roads
, turn to present your flank to the enemy. Fire your proton lasers at the first wasp ship we hit. Let’s see if we can blow W3 in half!” He looked to the right. “Navigation, swing us so we can add our right flank proton laser to this mix. Three proton beams, plus proton lasers from the destroyers and CO
2
lasers from the frigates, might just get us a kill!”

In the holo the green ship icons of his battle fleet changed orientation even as they stayed in Vortex formation. The counter hit 5,000 kilometers.

A star blossomed.

“One hostile splashed!” yelled Jefferson from the
Philippines Sea
.

“Captain!” yelled Rosemary. “The
Chesapeake
has a punch through on their right flank side. They are rotating to present their left flank to incoming fire. Their left side proton laser will begin firing shortly.”

The black face of Rebecca looked to him from the wallscreen. “Fleet captain, we got hit deep. Our right side proton laser node is gone. Fifteen crew with it. We are continuing to fire on the enemy.”

He knew that. Jacob could see that every battle group ship was firing either proton or CO
2
lasers at the wasps in a rotating target scheme. It had seemed like a good idea earlier.

“Swanson, fall back behind the
Lepanto
.
Hampton Roads
, move forward with us to block what beams you can. Fire your side proton laser at that wasp ship getting hit by our lasers. Do it now!”

“Moving,” Swanson said.

“Coming up to join you,” said Wilcox, his blue eyes blazing with fierce determination.

“Captain!” called Daisy. “We got a leaker. One wasp ship is moving out. It’s aiming for Valhalla!”

Damn
.

On the wallscreen, Joy Jefferson let out a screech. “I’m after him! You bastard! Let me burn your tail!”

No other ships left the Vortex formation. But Jacob could tell there was a desire to help the
Philippines Sea.

“All ships, maintain formation! Captain Jefferson, you have my permission to pursue that wasp ship. Stop him by any means necessary! Do not let him get close enough to launch nukes at the planet!”

She didn’t acknowledge. Instead, she told her Engines person to increase speed toward planet four.

It was time.

“All ships, go to Alpha Wheel formation. We are seven against their four.” He looked ahead. “Weapons, activate the antimatter cannon.”

“Activating,” Oliver said. “But no enemy is within range.”

“I know. We can still fire.” He tracked the enemy ships arrangement and saw what he needed to see. “Navigation, shift our nose to aim at the giant wasp ship. But lead it by a twenty degree angle. Weapons, you ready to fire yet?”

“Ready.”

“Fire!” yelled Jacob.

A black beam of negative antimatter shot out from the nose of the
Lepanto
. It streaked toward the spot in space where the giant wasp ship should be, in a few moments.

“Captain, the AM beam will lose coherence at 4,000 klicks,” called Alicia.

“I know. But the antimatter will still be present on that target vector. Yes, it will be a cloud. And no, it cannot kill that ship when so dispersed. But I bet that wasp ship won’t like what it does to their outer hull!”

“Yes!” cried Oliver as he understood Jacob’s reasoning.

“We’re hit bad!” yelled Metz from the
Marianas
. “Lost all thruster power. Still able to fire lasers and our plasma battery.”