The Burden of Command, page 41
part #14 of Empire Rising Series
As Achilles cruised towards New Delhi, Jonathan waited patiently. It took half an hour for his message to reach the colony. Seconds later, more than one bridge officer gasped. The response was immediate. Gravimetric waves began to be detected from every Imperial warship. They were all breaking orbit!
“I think Rear Admiral Davenport is pleased,” Cortez guessed. “She is certainly not beating about the bush.”
“She knows we only have a small window of opportunity,” Jonathan replied. “The Flex-aor fleet won’t stay with their tender ships forever. Alter course, put us onto a heading to rendezvous with Oblivion’s new trajectory.”
For more than two hours, Achilles moved to rendezvous with Oblivion. Not once did the fleet’s flagship send any kind of message to Jonathan’s destroyer. The silence got to the point where he started to get nervous. Obviously, Davenport had agreed with his interpretation of the sensor data they had collected from the pirate ship. Yet other than acknowledging his initial transmission. No one had contacted him. As soon as Achilles got into two-way communication range, butterflies began to jump around in his stomach. They intensified when the bridge’s COM console beeped.
“Admiral Davenport to speak to you Captain,” Rutherford reported.
Jonathan swallowed hard. He had thought maybe the Flag Captain or one of Davenport’s officers would want to debrief him. Not the Admiral herself. “Put her through,” he said after quickly glancing down at his uniform to straighten it. “Admiral,” Jonathan said as he snapped a salute. “Captain Somerville and Achilles are at your service.”
“Relax Captain,” Davenport said, a small smile playing across her lips. “I wanted to congratulate you in person. Don’t worry, you’re not in trouble. You and your ship have done well. It’s a pity you had to destroy those pirate ships, but you have struck gold locating the Flex-aor tender ships.”
“I am sorry about the pirate ships,” Jonathan replied woodenly. “They could have been used to bolster New Delhi’s or one of the nearby colony’s defenses. I just felt getting the report I had for you back here as quickly as possible took precedent.”
Davenport chuckled gently. “That wasn’t meant as a rebuke. You did well. Destroying the pirate ships was the right decision. Though I’m sure your crew would have enjoyed the prize money from their capture. I’m sending you the name of one of the freighters in my fleet. Have your prisoners and the captives you freed transferred to her. Once they’re on board, she’s going to return to New Delhi. After that, I want Achilles to take up station in the van of the fleet.”
Jonathan couldn’t help but frown. Thinking he had misheard, he glanced at Cortez, yet she looked as confused as him. “I’m sorry Admiral, you want us to take station in the van? Are we being assigned to the vanguard squadron?”
Davenport shook her head. “Not exactly. Given that Achilles was the ship who found these Flex-aor tender ships, I just thought you might like the honor of leading us out of the New Delhi system and into shift space.” Jonathan’s hesitation brought another chuckle from Davenport. “Just say thank you Captain. Your ship is honored to lead Home Fleet out.”
Jonathan splattered as he rushed to get his words out. “Of course Admiral, we are deeply honored. Achilles thanks you for showing us such favor.”
“Good,” Davenport said as she nodded. “That’s better. You first discovered the Flex-aor, and now you found where their fleet is fleeing to. I’ll tell you something Captain, you’ve inherited your father’s luck. Maybe I should have you lead the attack if they’re still there when we get there.” Davenport laughed when Jonathan’s cheeks redden. “Don’t worry, I wouldn’t do that to you just yet. Maybe someday, you’ll be ready.” Jonathan didn’t know how to reply. Being a Captain still felt alien to him. The responsibility was as much weight as he wanted to carry. The last thing he needed was to be in charge of a division or squadron, let alone a fleet! “Cat got your tongue?” Davenport prodded. “Maybe you’re a little more different from your father. Empress Christine always says he never knows when to keep quiet. No matter. You’ve done well, you and your crew. Give everyone on Achilles a triple food ration for the day. Let them know I gave the order.”
“I will Admiral. They will be delighted. Thank you for honoring us.”
“Just keep up the good work Captain. I’m sure we’ll speak again before we get to Plankton.”
Jonathan gave Davenport a salute and then she cut the COM channel. When he turned back to his bridge officers, they were all beaming at him. “You heard the Admiral, alter our heading, let’s rendezvous with this freighter and then move to the head of the fleet,” he said as his own smile joined theirs.
*
Achilles, outer Plankton system, 20th January 2509 AD, (seven days later).
Jonathan could hardly bear the wait. An hour ago, four stealth frigates had carried out a micro jump into the Plankton system. The rest of Home Fleet was waiting just beyond the system’s mass shadow for confirmation that the Flex-aor were in the system. Two weeks had passed since the pirates had spotted the Flex-aor tender ships. Jonathan was all too aware that anything could have happened in that time. The Flex-aor fleet could have arrived just after the pirates had left. If that was the case, they would almost certainly have resupplied themselves and long since left the system. Just as likely, the Flex-aor tender ships, or their scouts, might have detected the pirate ships and moved on to a different system. It was also quite possible that the Flex-aor had simply changed their plans and were tens of light years away.
Every minute that passed without the stealth ships returning had Jonathan coming up with reason after reason for why their hunt for the Flex-aor fleet could end in failure. If he had dragged Home Fleet all the way to the Plankton system for nothing, he would be furious with himself. Worse, if the Flex-aor struck somewhere else and destroyed another colony while Home Fleet was out of position, he’d never forgive himself. Of course, mentally, he knew Davenport had scout ships out searching all the nearby systems for the Flex-aor fleet. If they had doubled back, the chances were very high that they would have been spotted. Yet his emotions and imagination weren’t seeing things logically. Unbeknown to him, the stress started his foot tapping. He was so focused on watching the holo display that he didn’t even hear the sound echoed throughout Achilles’ bridge. Several officers glanced at Jonathan, and Lydia cracked a smile. He didn’t notice that either.
Minutes later, the sudden appearance of a new contact stopped Jonathan’s tapping dead. He held his breath when Achilles’ sensors confirmed the contact was one of the stealth frigates. “The frigate is communicating with Oblivion via laser COM link,” Rutherford reported. When no orders immediately came from Oblivion, Jonathan’s foot started tapping again. Over the next five minutes, the other three stealth frigates jumped in and began to report back as well. “We’re getting new orders through,” Rutherford eventually said. “They’re for your eyes only Captain.”
Only as the orders were transmitted to his command chair did Jonathan realize his foot was tapping. He stopped it at once with a hand on his knee. His cheeks reddened slightly even as he pulled up the message from Oblivion. Scanning through it quickly, relief washed over him. Then as he read further, he smiled, remembering the conversation he had had with Davenport at New Delhi. It seemed she wanted to honor Achilles further. “The Flex-aor fleet is still here. Most of their ships are still docked with their tender ships. We are getting the privilege of launching the attack. Prepare to take us into the system. We can carry out a micro jump to these coordinates and then cruise deeper into the system in stealth.” With a tap on his command chair, Jonathan transferred the sensor data to Achilles’ main holo display. “This Flex-aor destroyer is our target. Taking it out will begin the Fleet’s attack.” As he finished speaking, Jonathan couldn’t help but share a grin with Lydia. They had avenged the pirates that had attacked Frigila, now they were going to get to avenge Chennai. He knew it wouldn’t bring back the hundreds of thousands of colonists who had been killed. But it would feel good to destroy the ships that had committed such mass murder.
“Ready to jump Captain,” First Lieutenant Cortez announced a minute later.
“Inform the flagship we are proceeding,” Jonathan requested.
“They have acknowledged us,” Rutherford reported.
“Then take us in,” Jonathan ordered. Moments later, a slight tremor ran through Achilles as she tore a hole into shift space and jumped in. Just two seconds later, a second announced she had jumped out again. As Scholes brought Achilles’ engines up to four percent thrust, she slowly began to cruise into the system. For three hours, Jonathan and his bridge officers sifted through every trace of electromagnetic energy Achilles’ passive sensors detected. Sixteen Flex-aor frigates and destroyers had been detected within minutes, they were cruising around the outer system, their active sensors on full, giving away their positions. They weren’t what concerned Jonathan. Meticulously, he had his officers search for other hidden Flex-aor ships that might be in stealth themselves. Despite their best efforts, no such ships were detected. Jonathan was forced to conclude that either Flex-aor stealth technology was too good to enable them to detect their hidden ships, or that they had none. Either way, there was nothing more he could do to help Admiral Davenport’s fleet if there were any. Instead then, he shifted his focus onto Achilles’ flight path as his destroyer began to approach the Flex-aor picket ships. Slowly and carefully, he wove his way past three frigates and then began to sneak up on the destroyer Davenport had tasked him with engaging. Slotting in behind the destroyer, just outside of mark VII missile range, he began to wait.
“If they do have extra ships hidden out there in stealth that we can’t detect, at least we can be happy they can’t detect us either,” Cortez said once Achilles was in position. They’re going to get some fright when we light them up with our targeting sensors.”
“Which is just what they all deserve,” Lydia said. “They gave Chennai no chance. I’m not going to lose a wink of sleep if we don’t give them one either.”
“I couldn’t agree more,” Jonathan replied. “But let’s not get ahead of ourselves, I want every system constantly monitored. One stray emission, and we could give everything away.” Despite his words, Jonathan couldn’t help the occasional glances he stole towards the Flex-aor fleet and its tender ships. In total, it looked like three hundred and twenty enemy warships had survived the battle at New Delhi. Each of the twenty-two tender ships had at least ten ships docked with it. Even without Achilles’ active sensors, it was clear ships weren’t just being refueled and resupplied. Small shuttles were racing around many of the ships carrying out repairs. The tender ships must have repair yard facilities, Jonathan concluded. The Flex-aor had clearly gone to a lot of effort to build them. Which means this Flex-aor fleet is meant to continue operations along our border. A prolonged diversion, Jonathan thought as he remembered his dad explaining what he thought was really going on. He couldn’t help but become more worried. If the Flex-aor had gone to the trouble to cause such a diversion, how much effort had they put into whatever they were planning for their homeworlds? However much effort it was, Jonathan was all too aware that his father was heading towards it.
“It’s almost time,” Lydia announced, drawing Jonathan’s thoughts back to the destroyer in front of Achilles.
Jonathan nodded. “Prepare the active sensors. Fire as soon as every missile warhead has a lock.” Pausing, Jonathan waited for the counter on the holo display to reach zero. “Now! Go active with our sensors.”
Immediately, Achilles active sensors powered up and blasted the area around the Flex-aor destroyer with electromagnetic energy. As soon as the first returns were picked up, the data was fed to the warheads of the missiles in Achilles’ starboard tubes. A second later and they had all fully locked on. In the blink of an eye, they were hurled out of their tubes into space. Their engines ignited a fraction of a second later. Before the Flex-aor destroyer even knew what was going on, eight missiles were tracking it. Behind the missiles, Achilles’ reactors and engines powered into action as the destroyer charged in after its own ordinance.
“Prepare the second salvo,” Jonathan ordered. “But hold fire until we see how our first missiles fare.” Achilles was still well outside of the Flex-aor destroyer’s missile range, so he had no need to rush a second salvo. Instead, Jonathan watched the reaction of the Flex-aor destroyer. Bravely, it was already turning to try and close with Achilles to get into missile range. Brave but foolish, Jonathan thought. The destroyer would have been better to race towards one of its comrades to try and overlap their point defensive fire. Understandably, the rest of the Flex-aor scout ships had all turned their active sensors towards Achilles. Even as Jonathan watched though, some began to switch their sensors to look behind them in case Imperial ships had snuck upon them. A number were not disappointed. Over the course of thirty seconds, twelve other Imperial destroyers and frigates revealed themselves as they too launched missile salvos at their targets. James smiled as the Imperial ships appeared. Achilles’s appearance could have been written off as a one-off fluke, but the presence of so many hidden ships meant one thing; the Flex-aor fleet was about to come under attack. Sure enough, a flurry of activity was detected coming from the Flex-aor tender ships as their main battlefleet prepared itself.
“Our missiles have jettisoned their first stage,” Schmidt announced.
Jonathan turned his attention back to his target. His eight missiles suddenly became thirty-two. Then they charged in towards the Flex-aor destroyer. Desperately, it tried to shoot them all down. The Flex-aor fire fell woefully short. Only twenty-three missiles were destroyed. Evasive maneuvers saved the Flex-aor destroyer from five more. Yet that still left four antimatter warheads. Each one struck the Flex-aor freighter in the space of two seconds. The detonations negated every atom of the enemy ship.
Over the course of the next sixty seconds, eight more Flex-aor scout ships were destroyed as a large gap in their picket line was created. Just moments after the last detonation, two hundred and seventy new contacts appeared rushing towards the gap. Home Fleet was announcing its presence. Having jumped into the system at the same time as Achilles, only further out, Davenport’s warships had been slowly accelerating for hours. Now their reactors and engines went to full power as they charged towards the Flex-aor tender ships.
“Quite the show,” Cortez commented. “I wonder how the Flex-aor are taking it.”
Just how they are supposed to, Jonathan thought, but didn’t say, as he glanced at the Flex-aor ships. The sudden sneak attacks, followed by the revelation of Home Fleet’s proximity to the Flex-aor tender ships, was meant to grab their attention. That was just what was happening. Flex-aor capital ships were rushing to disengage from the tender ships and their light screening ships were moving out to face Home Fleet. With his part of the initial plan complete, Jonathan’s mind turned to Georgia. Be safe, he thought towards his little sister.
*
Watching the feed from her passive sensors, Georgia was enjoying the dramatic show too. As every active sensor in the Flex-aor fleet powered up and began to peer out towards Home Fleet, she enjoyed it even more. No one was looking towards her Hellcat. Davenport has timed it perfectly, she thought as her respect for the Rear Admiral grew. Clearly, her father knew what he was doing when he had put her in charge of Home Fleet and then left her in charge at New Delhi.
When her COM unit activated, Wing Commander Jensen spoke to all the pilots in the attack force. “Listen up boys and girls, we’re not going to get a better chance than this. Hit the tender ships, and then break off. We just need to soften them up for the fleet. Let’s not take any more risks than we need to. Come out of stealth on my order.”
Knowing the order was coming soon, Georgia rolled her shoulders and tried to force her body to relax. Then her hand moved to her flight stick. Within sixty seconds, her COM unit crackled again. As soon as she heard Jensen’s voice, Georgia slammed her accelerated control forward. Her Hellcat’s reactor thumbed into life, and then her engines thrust her forward. Having snuck up so close to the Flex-aor tender ships from the rear, her secondary HUD told her she was just one minute’s flight time from entering range of their point defenses. The sudden appearance of eighty fighters threw the Flex-aor into a panic. Georgia smiled. Frigates and destroyers that had been rushing to form a secondary screening line in front of Home Fleet now tried to reverse course. The larger capital ships that were docked with the tender ships tried to speed up their decoupling. Good luck, Georgia thought towards them. It was possible more than a few had their reactors taken off-line to carry out repairs. Others seemed to have sections powered down as work was being carried out on them.
When she was thirty seconds out from the enemy’s point defensive range, Georgia started her evasive maneuvers. For a few seconds, she examined her emotions. Fear still ran through her as she anticipated what was about to come. Yet neither her heart rate nor breathing were elevated. She couldn’t help the small grin that touched her lips. You’re almost becoming a veteran, she thought. Then her mind went to Jonathan. Achilles had scored another kill. So is he; you better step it up to stop him getting any further ahead!
Knowing she couldn’t afford any more such thoughts to distract her, Georgia let out one long, final breath, and then cleared her mind. With ease, she fell into the trancelike state she was becoming accustomed to. Thousands of hours of training in flight simulators and live fire exercises made every movement of her flight stick instinctive. Her heart rate barely fluttered when the first laser beams started to zip past. Diving in with the rest of Wing Commander Jensen’s force, Georgia’s Hellcat dodged everything fired at it. With so many Flex-aor ships on the far side of the tender ships, the defensive fire was relatively weak. Yet it slowly ramped up as more and more ships got back to help defend the tender ships. Hellcats started to be blown apart. Georgia didn’t notice the increased fire or the destruction of other fighters from the attack force. Only one goal dominated her mind. The tender ship designated Beta three. As soon as her fighter beeped at her, Georgia fired one, and then a second, antimatter missile. Six other missiles appeared from around Georgia’s Hellcat as her surviving wing mates fired. The moment they were away, she depressed her secondary trigger, flinging tens of laser beams towards the tender ship. Small explosions peppered its hull. Larger explosions momentarily blinded Georgia’s vision as several antimatter missiles were taken out. Three still remained. Georgia willed them on to their target, even as she continued to fire laser beams. When the first one struck, the tension that had been building up in her erupted into a scream of victory. As the second two crashed home and three massive holes were ripped in the tender ship, she pulled her fighter up and away from the Flex-aor fleet. She screamed again when secondary blasts ripped the tender ship apart. Then in one final explosion, the tender ships reactors were overloaded. The shockwave ripped apart the five or six ships that were still docked with it. Many large chunks of ships were flung in every direction. The debris smashed into a handful more ships destroying or crippling them. In jubilation, Georgia glanced at the rest of the tender ships. More explosions were tearing through them. She counted eleven that were either already destroyed or in the process of being ravaged. Tens of warships were dying with them. Now we get out of here, she thought to herself as the defensive fire coming towards her Hellcat slackened. It’s back over to you, she thought towards her brother. Minutes after moving out of energy weapon range of the Flex-aor warships, Georgia joined the rest of Wing Commander Jensen’s wing as they went back into stealth.
