Rumors of Salvation (System States Rebellion Book 3) (20 page)

“WHAT
ARE YOU DOING?” Verbalizing the question wasn’t necessary, because his implant
could read his thoughts, but shouting it made him feel better. The reply was
almost instantaneous, and Trojan knew within seconds what Majestic was up to.
When the transmission ended, he also knew that it was the last message he would
ever get from the demon machine. He felt his implant shut down even as he
brought his hands to his face and began to sob uncontrollably. Just when he
thought the situation couldn’t get any worse, it had gotten worse, a LOT worse.

Day
185/2556

Coral
Sea

Quarter
light year outside of Franklin Tri-system

Molitor
paced back and forth in front of the main display as she waited for the other
six ships to get back into formation with the flagship. No matter how carefully
a long jump was calculated for a multi-ship jump, infinitesimal differences in
equipment calibration always resulted in ships emerging from hyper-space tens
of thousands and sometimes hundreds of thousands of kilometers apart. At least
the Ether detection system made the reformation process a bit easier. She knew
where the other six ships were and could contact them fairly quickly. It was
the time it took to physically move closer that made her impatient. This
preliminary jump destination was far enough away from both Hadley and Makassar
to prevent her ships from being detected by Majestic. When the fleet was back
in formation, they would micro-jump the relatively short distance to the edge
of Makassar’s hyper-zone. Then the real fun would begin.

It
took almost 20 minutes for the last of the six ships to slip into her assigned
formation slot. Molitor was now looking at images of the six other C.O.s on the
main display.

“My
A.O. has calculated our jump target co-ordinates. Have your ships’ helm
controls tied in with the flagship’s so that we all do the same thing at the
same time. We’re also going to charge all of our energy turrets before we jump
to Makassar. I want us to be able to fire at enemy ships immediately if the
opportunity presents itself, but wait for my order. If there are multiple
targets within range, my W.O. will allocate targets to each ship. You’re also
going to get jump co-ordinates for a rally point in case we find ourselves
overmatched and have to retreat. Don't jump to the rally point unless you hear
specific orders to do so. If I’m unable to maintain control of the battle for
whatever reason, then Commander Crusero will assume command of the fleet, and
if he’s unable to do so, then Commander Yeager is next in the chain of command.
If all three of us are unable to fulfil fleet command responsibilities, then
you’re free to head for the rally point at your discretion and from there head
back to Excalibur. Does anyone have any questions?” There were none. “Okay.
Let’s get the fleet lined up for the jump. We’ll keep this com channel open at
all times. Good luck to us all and good hunting.”

The
jump to Makassar took less than ten minutes. The first thing Molitor checked
upon emergence back into normal space was the presence of enemy ships. The
tactical display was immediately updated with data from the Ether detection
system. She was relieved to see that there was only one other ship within
detection range. That was the sentinel ship. A quick check showed that a timer
was keeping track of the time since the fleet emerged from hyper-space.
Makassar didn’t have a Majestic-type computer in command, so any response would
be delayed a bit due to normal human reaction times.

Molitor
watched the timer carefully.
That sentinel ship should be jumping for Hadley
just about…now!
The tactical displayed pinged to announce a status change.
The sentinel ship had just jumped away.
Okay, the jump itself will take
about twenty-one seconds. Say another twenty seconds for the warning message to
reach Hadley and another twenty seconds for Majestic’s response to reach
whatever ships are in high orbit. Let’s assume fifteen seconds for the ships to
line up with Makassar. In seventy-six seconds, those ships should be in jump
transit here. If we micro-jump to Hadley at T plus seventy seconds, we should
get there after they’ve left.

“Helm,
we’ll initiate the jump to Hadley at T plus seventy seconds,” announced
Molitor. The H.O. acknowledged her order with a wave of his hand. She was just
confirming what they had discussed before arriving at the rally point.

“Commander,
our infrared scanners are picking up some unusual readings from Makassar,”
announced the Detection Technician. “If I didn’t know better, I’d say all the
installations on Makassar have been turned into pools of molten slag.”

With
the timer rapidly approaching the T+70 second mark, Molitor was reluctant to
devote any of her focus to the bizarre scan report. The destruction of all
industrial and mining installations on Makassar made no sense. Why would
Majestic destroy its only source of shipbuilding capacity, and if it wasn’t
Majestic that ordered the destruction, who else could possibly have done it?

“No
time to look at the data now. I’ll review the recordings later, Lieutenant,”
said Molitor quickly. Just as she finished speaking, the timer hit 70 seconds.

“We’re
jumping!” announced the Helm Officer. The 21 seconds passed so quickly that
Molitor wondered if her sense of timing was being affected by an adrenaline
rush.

“Coming
up on Hadley in…three…two…one…mark!” The H.O.’s shout was almost drowned out by
the warning sound made by the tactical display. There were five ships in orbit
around Hadley. All five were outside of Hadley’s hyper-zone. Four of them were
in a loose cluster, while the fifth one was off by itself. Molitor had just
enough to time to realize that the lone ship was almost certainly the sentinel
ship. There was no time to try to figure out why the other four were still
here. She had to decide how to fight these ships fast!

“Guns,
allocate fleet fire among two hostiles! When we’ve crippled them, we’ll take on
the other two and worry about the singleton later!”

“Gotcha,
Commander! Stand by!”

Molitor
could tell from her Command Station screens that Coral Sea’s two superluminal
turrets, S1 and S2, were taking aim at one of the orbiting ships. She checked
the range. Eight point nine light seconds. With triangulated data from seven
Ether detection systems, the hit probability at that range was pretty good.

“Fire
when ready, Guns!”

The
Weapons Officer nodded. “Firing now…Bogey One’s venting atmosphere! Vixen
reports Bogey Two’s venting as well! All ships are recharging!”

Those damaged ships might jump away before we can fire
again. Maybe we should switch fire to the other two now!
Before she
could formulate another thought, Coral Sea lurched so violently that she heard
someone on the Bridge scream in pain. The lights failed for a full second. When
power came back on, her Command Station lit up with an alarming number of
yellow and red status lights indicating major damage to a whole range of ship’s
systems.

“WHAT
HIT US?” yelled Molitor. After a couple of seconds, she heard the shocked voice
of her Chief Engineer.

“We
suffered proximity damage from a massive explosion nearby. My guess is a near
miss from a missile armed with a fusion warhead!”

The
tactical display, which was only now recovering from the loss of power, caught
her horrified attention before she could respond to the Engineer’s speculation.
Three of her carriers were gone, meaning they were literally blown apart. Vixen
was also apparently badly damaged. Her fleet had been basically cut in half,
and she had no idea how the enemy had done it. She needed time to figure out
what had happened and how to deal with it.

“Helm!
Order the fleet to jump to the rally point right now! Let’s get out of here!”

“Jump
order sent! We still have positive Helm control. Initiating jump in
three…two…one…now!”

It
took almost an hour to get Coral Sea’s and Vixen’s critically damaged systems
stabilized and the injured crew attended to. Meanwhile, the four ship fleet
coasted on the same heading. Molitor held a video conference with the other
three C.O.s in her quarters where she could talk candidly without worrying
about the Bridge crew overhearing her.

“What’s
Vixen’s status now, Brad,” asked Molitor.

“We’ve
got main power and life support back online. My number two super turret is
still unusable. It’s too damaged to be repaired. It’ll have to be pulled out
and replaced with a new one, which will have to wait until we’re back at
Excalibur. Hull breaches have been patched, but they’re only temporary fixes.
Maneuvering engines and jump drive were shaken up, but are still operational.
Vixen can fight.”

“Very
good. Coral Sea is pretty much in the same condition, but only just. She wasn’t
built for combat originally, so if she takes any more damage, she might not be
able to maneuver or jump. At least Europa and Gambier Bay weren’t damaged at
all. The question now becomes what do we do next? My orders from Drake don’t
cover this situation. As I see it, we have two choices. Either head back to
Excalibur, report to Drake and get our ships repaired, or we go back to Hadley
and try to accomplish the mission we set out to do. I’d like to hear input from
all three of you. Brad, you go first.”

“Well,
Rachel, before I even consider going back to Hadley, I’d like to know what they
used against us. There wasn’t time for a missile volley to be launched after we
emerged from hyper-space and cover the intervening distance that quickly.”

Before
he could say more, Yeager jumped in. “I think my engineer’s figured that out.
They launched missiles that were jump capable. If the missiles also had the
Ether detection system installed, then they’d be able to home in on our ships
after jumping to within short range.”

“Yes,
of course that’s it,” said Molitor in disgust. Now that it was pointed out to
her, it was clearly the obvious solution. No one had bothered to develop
jump-capable missiles before because there was no way to detect ships at ranges
long enough to warrant using jump technology, but the Ether detection system
changed that dynamic. Majestic would have considered all possible uses of the
new system, whereas a human engineer might have overlooked such a radical idea.
“If they fired their missiles a few seconds after detecting us, the missiles
would have only needed to point in our general direction, jump to relatively
close range and then accelerate the rest of the way in. We weren’t using our
standard radars because we assumed there was nothing to detect, and if those
missiles were also using the anti-radar stealth designs, radar wouldn’t have
done us any good anyway. Did your engineer also happen to come up with a way to
beat these missiles, Ernst?”

Yeager
smiled. “Ah no, he didn’t, but I’ve had time to think about this problem, and I
think we can neutralize those jump-capable missiles. If those Empire ships
haven’t changed vectors after our attack, and I realize that’s a big IF, then
we have a pretty good idea of exactly where they are and will be at any given
point in time. Suppose we head back at a slow velocity and jump to within a
hundred kilometers of where we expect those ships to be. At that range, our
x-rays can’t miss, and we can try to cut them to pieces before they can launch
any missiles. Just to be on the safe side, I recommend we fire two, maybe three
laser volleys, then jump away, turn around and do the whole thing again. If it
works a second time and those ships are still operational, we can try it a
third time.”

Crusero
was the first one to get over his shock. “A hundred kilometers? You want us to
try to jump that close? What are the odds that one of our ships will emerge
trying to occupy the same space as an Empire ship by mistake?”

Yeager
didn’t bat an eye. “My Astrogator actually did that calculation. She figures
the odds of an overlapping emergence for one of our ships at around one chance
in twenty-one. Just under five percent. Not that bad really.”

Molitor
looked at Crusero and Gambier Bay’s Foxman. As rolls of the dice went, those
odds actually weren’t that bad, but neither of them looked particularly
reassured.

“Why
not give us a little more room, say two hundred klicks?” she asked.

“Well,
my engineer had to make some assumptions about the jump capabilities of those
missiles, but based on what our ships can do, the minimum distance we could
micro-jump is just over two hundred kilometers. Our jump drives aren’t
calibrated finely enough to handle jumps that are shorter than that. If the
same limit applies to the missiles, then they’d be able to jump at us if we
were more than two hundred klicks away. Since there’s a margin for error in any
jump, if we aim for one hundred klicks distance, we’ll have a ninety-nine
percent chance of ending up within two hundred klicks. If we aimed for two
hundred, there’d be a forty-four percent chance of ending up further away.”