The Black Guardians: Book 4 in the Black Guard series, page 17
This time, he didn't answer for several minutes. "Yes, Commander Quinn."
"Excellent. Captain Sitala, can you change your vector after I destroy the two Skulls coming from the planet. That will force the two Skulls closer to the Wave to chase you and permit my squadron to intercept them before they are in missile range?"
"Bishipe?" Sitala said and grinned.
"Yes, Captain. That is possible."
"Ma'am, with your permission, that is what I would like to try," I said, hoping she would not dismiss my plan so she could engage the Skulls or because she thought it impractical.
She gave a hearty laugh. "You won't be disappointed if I keep the Sabretooth at Battle Stations, Commander Quinn, just in case?"
"No, ma'am. The Skulls may not go along with my plan," I said and blushed scarlet, realizing she was being sarcastic…and I was being arrogant thinking the battle was already won.
I rushed out of the hatch when she waved for me to go. I was out of breath by the time I reached Bay 5. To my relief, the Besras were all ready and waiting to launch.
"Ryan, open our secure communications link," I said, thinking it would be easier to give everyone an overview in person rather than in code where something could get mixed up. Ryan nodded.
"The Sabretooth has four Skulls cruisers intending to engage it. Two from the direction of the planet and two from the Wave exit. Captain Sitala will appear to run from them, putting both on an intercept course. We are going to intercept the two coming from the planet first, then the two from the Wave, which are further behind. I will decide our method of attack when we reach them. I suggest you relax as we are at least a half-hour from the intercept point. Any questions?" I heard a chorus of nos. "Ryan, tell the controller we are ready to rock and roll."
Ryan had the vector displayed on my monitor, and I adjusted our course to match it, hoping Bishipe was a very good navigator. Thirty-eight minutes later, Ryan transfer his passive display to my monitor. The two Skull cruisers were flying side by side about two kilometers apart.
"Ryan, send Standard three-by-two attack," I said as we maneuvered into position with me in the middle, Teressa to my port side, and Chika to my starboard.
"Ryan, send Fire two," I said, and less than ten seconds later, the cruiser on the starboard exploded and the one on my port was spewing debris and shut down less than a minute later. "Ryan, send Two and two to Teressa," I said, and several seconds later, Teressa and I moved ahead, each firing two missiles into the starboard side of the wounded Skulls cruiser and Teressa another two missiles into the port side, which caused the cruiser to break in half as we accelerated past. "Ryan, next vector, please," I said, grinning like a child having found a new toy to play with.
"The Sabretooth is turning to the starboard… and the Skulls are changing their vector to intercept," Ryan said, frowning. "I'm surprised the Skulls didn't notice the explosion or that their two sister ships are no longer on the radar."
"Keep an eye on them. Their radar operator may be drunk or asleep," I quipped.
"No, they are breaking off and heading for the Wave." Ryan laughed.
"Can we catch them before they reach the Wave?" I asked, concerned that they saw too much, and even if they didn't, that they had witnessed the engagement.
Ryan nodded. "Easily, but it will take well over an hour."
"Ryan, send a message to Captain Sitala," I said, wanting to minimize the number of people who knew we had been in a fight with raiders. "Stand down from Battle Stations. The exercise is over, although the area probably needs a cleaning. We will see you at Ceetana. Quinn."
We reached the two Skulls cruisers ninety-six minutes later.
"Ryan, let’s try our standard three-by-two Punch Through. I want to see how eight missiles at close range works." Punch through was one of the several standard scenarios we had diagrammed. The scenario had our three Besras racing through the two opposing cruises. The two cruisers on the outside fired four missiles each into their opponent while the inside cruiser fired eight missiles, four into the portside cruiser and four into the starboard cruiser. That meant each of the enemy cruisers received eight missiles, four on each side. Because we were accelerating faster than the Skulls, it meant the missiles were spaced ten meters apart along the cruisers' sides. The result was spectacular, and the cruisers literally broke up like a crushed cracker.
When we arrived at Ceetana three hours later, the Sabretooth was in orbit since the planet had no spaceport. After the Sabretooth became aware we were back, Bay 5 opened, and we slid inside. I had been up for over thirty-six hours and was exhausted now that the adrenaline levels were back to normal.
"Kat, Captain Sitala wants to see you on the Bridge. ASAP," Ryan said, smiling. "I'm going to bed."
"Tell everyone to say nothing until we get the details straight," I said while yawning.
47 – Ceetana, Bedtime Story
"Congratulations, Commander Quinn," Sitala said while studying me. “I'm afraid I thought your plan a lot of youthful enthusiasm and bluster. I apologize. You are a lot like Sapir: surgical in your approach and concerned for every Jax life. My crew and I would love to have engaged the Skulls although the odds of winning very poor. Like General Cluster, we were badly outnumbered. I will have to revise my statement that we were not going to win a war with anything that can fit into my fighter bays. So, tell us how you did it."
"As I said, we are assassins. The first two Skulls, we approached from the rear…” I went on to explain our formations and the missiles.
"A missile up a cruiser’s ass is certainly a party-ending event," Sitala said with a snort. "All right, I know Admiral Noam wants to keep the Besras a secret, but fighting off four cruisers is going to sound suspicious."
"Restating the fact usually works in my experience growing up with two older brothers." I grinned. "Battle Stations was called, and the Besras scrambled when we saw two armed mercenaries attacking each other. You scrambled the fighters to look for survivors after the Besras reported they had destroyed each other. The Besras stayed out searching the area but found no other cruisers."
Sitala laughed. "I'll bet your brothers were glad to see you join the navy." Sitala caught each person's eyes before speaking. "Commander Rostek, make sure your pilots understand that is the party line, and that goes for all of us. The alternative is life on the Jax security reservation. You can claim ignorance about anything you couldn't have seen, like what the Besra did or was doing."
For the next several days, there was a lot of talk about the Battle Stations exercise, and most of the rumors I heard were consistent with the cover story, although a few of the pilots on cleanup duty were giving me strange looks.
Afterward, everything returned to boring. We dropped off Captain Sapir and her team and waited for her to finish the contract or to get orders from Jax. In the meantime, Captain Sitala conducted periodic exercises which seldom included us.
Two weeks later, Noam arrived on the Deathstalker. His attention was understandable. A war was brewing, and he needed to understand every encounter involving a Besra and how their crew reacted. A war was no time to decide if you had any weaknesses or whether you had the best crew on each Besra.
"Attention!" Commander Alion shouted when Noam entered the Sabretooth's conference room.
"At ease," Noam said, looking around the room. “I assume everyone attending has been briefed on the incident, and the consequences of any leaks, even minor leaks are a potential concern as my AFS-1 squadron leader has been far too active. Our cover stories have been good, but too much interest will discover holes that will create closer scrutiny that could unravel the real secret and lead to the eventual demise of Jax." That created a silence you could cut with a knife. "Captain Sitala, could you start with what prompted the incident?"
"Yes, Admiral. We were in Ceetana space to deliver Captain Sapir to a contract with the ruling king when… I called Commander Quinn, per Captain Hwang’s advice to update her and then let her do her thing. After a discussion with my navigation officer, she developed an attack strategy, which kept the Sabretooth out of missile range of the Skulls."
"Commander Quinn?" Noam said, clearly wanting my account of my squadron.
"Sir, I wanted to keep the Sabretooth out of the action. The Besras are assassins. A cruiser duel with missiles and potentially fighters would complicate my squadron's ability to quietly eliminate the raiders and maybe aid the other raiders to get away. That way, no Jax personnel had to get hurt, and the engagement took place far from the planets and the normal travel lanes."
Of course, that wasn't enough detail for Noam. I had to go back over my discussions with the navigation officer, the plan I decided on, and the precise details of each attack. Afterward, Noam sat silent for what seemed like hours.
"Captain Sitala, do you have any comments?"
"I would say Captain Hwang had the right of it. Give the Besra squadron leader an overview of the situation and let her go," Sitala said. “Your Besra and their squadron leader are truly the Black Guard of space."
"Damn it," Noam swore quietly and didn't look happy. "This is the same problem we had with Captain Sapir. She makes everyone nervous since we never know what she will do in a given situation, yet we give her all the non-traditional assignments because she finds solutions. We wanted Sapir to teach the next class of leaders just like I am tempted to reassign Quinn back to the advanced fighter school to teach, but she cannot teach her intuitive kind of judgment. Yet the next war may depend on the Besra squadron leaders having just that kind of judgment."
Again, Noam paused for several minutes. "Thanks to Captain Sitala, the Jax team worked as a unified organism to solve a potential disaster. Now we must ensure the cover story is the only story anyone hears."
48 – Rumors, Lies, and Facts
"Mason, what the hell went wrong this time?" Joshsa shouted before Mason and Vega had shut the door to the living room.
"I have no fucking idea, Ace," Mason said, going straight to the bar and pouring himself a glass of wine. "Maybe it’s a warning from the space gods not to fuck with the Jax." He collapsed onto the sofa where Vega was sitting. "This time there is only one consistent rumor. It claims two mercenaries were in a battle and destroyed each other."
"Bullshit!" Joshsa shouted and finished his glass of whatever he was drinking. "What is the likelihood that happened, and what about the other two? You said they had four."
"When the two were destroyed by whoever, the other two probably fled," Vega interjected as he rose and poured himself a glass of wine. "What two sober mercenaries in old cruisers would want to take on a Jax cruiser? It's unlikely they would win, and if they did, at what cost?"
Joshsa appeared to calm down as he poured himself a brandy and sat on the lounge chair facing the two men. "It's far more logical to assume the Skulls’ timing was off and two reached the Sabretooth before the other two and were destroyed, and the remaining two chose to run." He took two sips before continuing, "Yes, there is a message here. The Jax are a formidable adversary, and we need to understand the truth about what happened to the Skulls before we make any plans to attack them. We have twelve cruisers between us with three in production and could probably successfully attack Jax today, but there is something going on that we don't understand. Besides, we don't have a reason to justify to the Helix Alliance why we would attack the Jax."
"I agree," Vegas said while pouring himself another glass of wine. "Jax may have installed missile platforms or have a couple of permanent cruisers guarding the Wave that they keep a secret. No one would blame them after the three of us raided them when we moved into the system."
"The key to our dilemma," Joshsa said, ignoring Vega, "lies in the defeat of the Skulls. The facts, not the rumors."
"Or we could send one of our more arrogant captains to test one of the Jax cruisers," Vega said with an evil grin.
"Or two," Mason added.
"Under what pretext?" Joshsa asked. "I don't want to upset the alliance members. It's too fragile at this point."
"We could do it in some other system away from the Helix cluster," Mason said.
"We need to leave one cruiser at the Wave to observe," Vega added, touching his glass to Mason's.
“Then we would need three cruisers," Joshsa said. "One as an observer, and two to hassle the Jax cruiser. If two can destroy a Jax cruiser, we would only need ten to defeat them, and we would have two remaining as we have twelve right now."
"Six," Mason said. "They reconditioned the Sabretooth and will shortly have seven when they finish reconditioning the Lynx later this year."
"Actually, ten could be enough if two can destroy one of theirs. We could attack Jax when they have several on contract, leaving only three or four on home guard," Joshsa said, pursing his lips in thought. "We need more information on the incidents with the Skulls. To hell with the alliance if we can get rid of the Jax sooner. None of them have enough military to stop us. I would prefer the three of us were the alliance navy. Less compromises required." He rose and poured each man a half glass of his Last Drop Glenrothes single malt scotch. "To the early demise of the Jax."
49 – What's Next
"Well, Noam, we just heard your latest rumor," Admiral Geller said after Noam took a seat at the committee's conference room table with a steaming cup of kaffa. "Apparently, two mercenary cruisers got in a fight over something and destroyed each other. The rumors vary, but the most consistent ones say they were Skulls."
"Actually, Commander Quinn was the architect of this rumor as well as the Jax invasion one." Noam smiled. "She is quite creative at distorting the truth. In reality, four Skulls cruisers attacked the Sabretooth on its way to deliver Captain Sapir and her team to Ceetana for a contract with King Santono the Third. The attack was well-planned, and they managed to box in the Sabretooth with two blocking access to Ceetana and two blocking access to the Wave exit, giving the Sabretooth no way to avoid an engagement. In addition, they were spaced to permit the four cruisers to reach the Sabretooth simultaneously. An easy kill even for older model cruisers–sixteen missiles from each launch and coming from four different directions, an ECM nightmare."
Geller and Lerman involuntarily leaned forward as if to hear better.
"Quinn," Noam said and laughed. "She has singlehandedly destroyed the Skulls’ twelve-cruiser fleet, and I suspect giving Outpost, Valhall, and Lariw the mother of all headaches."
"How?" Geller asked, frowning so hard her eyes almost disappeared. "I'm told the Sabretooth was a bystander and never involved."
"Kat – that is what everyone is calling Quinn, including the captains – got Captain Sitala to appear to run, forcing the Skulls cruisers to give chase on two separate vectors. The Besra squadron then intercepted the two on the shortest vector and destroyed them before they could get in missile range. Before she could intercept the other two cruisers, they chose to run. The Besras, with their larger power plant, caught them before they could exit the system."
"Noam, you really did return with an out-of-the-box solution to the alliance problem," Lerman said, giving Noam a head bow in respect.
"Yes, Outpost and friends probably have migraines, but they are not stupid," Geller said, nodding. “They will, however, know that one Jax cruiser shouldn't be capable of destroying three or four cruisers, especially when crewed by experienced raiders. So, they will be looking for answers. Since the rumors are not going to give them the answer even if they deduce the basic facts, they must force an engagement with an observer to report the facts."
"I agree," Noam and Lerman said together.
"The results of such an engagement may well determine Outpost's next move," Geller said, nibbling on her lower lip in thought. "Ace Joshsa's weakness is his lack of patience and his hot temper. If he sees a weakness, he may well abandon using the alliance and choose to strike now."
"I don't believe he could do that in alliance space without weakening or possibly fracturing the alliance," Lerman said, shaking his head. "Half of the members joined reluctantly, either bought off or coerced."
"If," Geller said, looking suddenly worried, "the Skulls raid on Jax was incited by Outpost, it means they fully intend to destroy our planet! Noam, what will it take to defend Jax against an all-out invasion?"
"Right now, Outpost, Valhall, and Lariw have twelve cruisers between them. Given that, I would estimate we would need at a minimum three cruisers each with a three-Besra squadron attached with someone like Quinn in charge. Otherwise, four cruisers each with a Besra squadron."
"Do you have another squadron commander like Quinn?" Geller asked, studying him intently.
"Impossible to know. She is the only one to have encountered a hostile force." Noam shrugged. "It's further complicated by our captains. Quinn is like Sapir and would ignore a captain if she thought his approach wrong. So, we need squadron leaders who have good judgment and are willing to act independently if necessary. You have to remember, our squadron commanders are young, have been taught to respect rank, and have no experience to offset ignoring orders from the captain of a cruiser."
“Assign Quinn and the Sabretooth to Home fleet and put her in charge of the Besra squadrons," Geller said, looking to Lerman and Noam for their reaction.
"I don't think Joshsa is that reckless since he can't be sure of the circumstances surrounding the Jax and the Skulls engagement," Noam said quietly as if thinking. "He will want to test us, but not in the Helix system. Somewhere we have a contract. Based on favorable results, he might be tempted into an all-or-nothing roll of the dice. For now, I recommend we wait."
"How many cruisers now have a three-Besra squadron?" Lerman asked.
Noam checked his tablet before answering, "Five."
"I understand the newest squadrons are stationed on Home duty," Geller quickly added.
