Solbidyum Wars Saga 5: Desolation (34 page)

By now we were nearly back to the
HAPRIN,
and we could see that the Brotherhood fleet had arrived, and they were opening fire on the
HAPRIN
.  Where the smaller patrol ships and fighters we used to pick away at the HAPRIN earlier had slowly done damage to the starship, the frigates and corvettes from the Brotherhood fleet were now blasting hunks out of the ship.  Our small fighters and patrol ships were firing away at the frigates, slowly knocking out a few guns here and there, but it was obvious that there were at least two cloaked ships with RMFF’s in the fleet, and the power of their shots was tearing the
HAPRIN
apart.

Soon, we were once again in range close enough for only a slight lag in communication with the
HAPRIN
.  “Sokaia, this is Tibby, if you read me, did you take the components for a Cantolla gate with you on any of your ships?”

After a few second delays, Sokaia’s voice came back over the com system, “Affirmative, we have it set up, however, we do not have a matching gate up on any ship at the moment.”

“Who has the synthesizer codes to produce the matching gate?”  I asked, just as the door to the bridge opened and Marranalis and Captain Slater entered.

She responded, “A’Lappe and Cantolla do.”

“Turn your gate on, I’m sending Marranalis to the
NEW ORLEANS
to get A’Lappe and Cantolla to produce the sympathetic particles necessary for a matching gate on the
NEW ORLEANS
.  As soon as it’s active I want you to send your troopers through that gate.  You’ll be arriving on the
NEW ORLEANS,
but you can use the matching gate there to the
DUSTEN
and route your men back here as quickly as possible.”  I nodded to Marranalis, who, having heard the conversation, was already headed out the door and to the Cantolla gate back to the
NEW ORLEANS.

“Sir, what about the Brotherhood men aboard this ship?”  Sokaia asked.

“I have a hunch there are not that many.  I think this whole thing was a huge trap.”  I responded.

“You may be right, sir.  We haven’t encountered half the number of Brotherhood men here we anticipated, and there appear to be no civilians aboard at all.”

“Captain Slater,” I said as I turned toward him, “I hope Marranalis apprised you of our situation?”

“I got the short version of it as he rushed me here,” Slater responded.

“You know Ming and his tactics better than any of us do.  Does this sort of attack look like something Ming would concoct?”

“Indeed, it does Admiral,” Ming used a similar ploy back in the war on Earth against the Pacific fleet.”

“What was his purpose then?”  I asked.  “I can’t imagine why he would risk losing a starship like the
HAPRIN
, just to kill off several hundred of our troopers.  It’s a poor tradeoff.”

“Ming’s tactic back then was far larger than we thought; on Earth, he captured and was holding a missile base in the Philippines. He drew the unified world forces away in pursuit of the ships that had conquered the island while our men reclaimed it.  He had submarines lying in wait in deeper water, and once our ships were out of sight, he had them surface and nuke the island.  Our ships that were in pursuit of the fleeing Chinese ships turned to return to the island, but were caught between the two Chinese fleets; first the subs, and second the once fleeing ships.

“Our fleet immediately put out the call for assistance and ships and planes from Hawaii were dispatched in what we expected to be a huge battle.  In the meantime, the real goal of Ming was about to come under attack.  Ming had another submarine fleet lying in wait near Hawaii and stealth bombers in the air headed to Hawaii.  They hit the island with heavy fire and missiles, destroying all the military facilities there.  Our ships at the Philippines received a nasty pounding as the ships and planes from Hawaii turned, heading back to help what was left of the base at Hawaii.  However, by the time they arrived, it was too late and the attacking subs and planes were gone, and Hawaii was in ruin.  Our fleet at the Philippines lost 65% of their ships.”

“So you think Ming has another larger target he is getting ready to attack?”  I asked.

“I’m certain of it, but I have no idea where.”  Slater said.

“I think I do, Captain.  I'm just hoping that A’Lappe and Cantolla have been able to work some of their magic again, because we are going to need to move a lot of ships very fast, and extremely far if I am correct.”

“Sokaia, this is Tibby,” I said in the com, “how are you holding out over there?”

“We’re getting blown to pieces, Admiral,” Sokaia said.  Our transports can’t get back to the
HAPRIN
to get us out of here, and at the rate the Brotherhood is taking pieces out of this ship, we only have another hour left before we’re all dead.”

“Captain Wanoll, can you spot where the
HAPRIN
is taking the most intense fire and get the
DUSTEN
in front of their shots to shield them?”  I asked.

“Making it so now, Admiral.  However, it will only be a short time before the enemy reposition and start hitting her from another angle.”

“I’m hoping that by then we will have been able to get our men off of her.”

“Admiral,” Sokaia’s voice came across the com, “we have an open gate now, and I can see A’Lappe on the other side.  We will begin sending our troopers through immediately.  My team is still trying to get the RMFF up and working, if they don’t have it by the time the rest of the team has left the
HAPRIN,
we will be the last to evacuate.”

“How soon before we are in a position to block the shots coming from the cloaked Brotherhood ships?” I asked Captain Wanoll.

“We’re maneuvering into position now and already are taking some of the shots,” he answered.

“See if our computers can triangulate where the cloaked ships are from the shots they are firing, and return fire to those locations.  It’s possible some of those ships may not have RMFF’s, and with a couple of lucky shots, we may be able to damage or destroy a few of them,” I ordered.

A few minutes later as we watched on the screen, we saw a large explosion as our ship's computer targeted and destroyed a cloaked ship.  “Admiral, it looks like at least one cloaked Brotherhood ship didn’t have an RMFF.  How did you know it wouldn’t?” Captain Wanoll asked.

“I didn’t,” I answered, “I was guessing that it would be harder to produce an RMFF than a cloaking device and getting a 10X reactor to fuel an RMFF even harder.   The Brotherhood is relying on ships they steal or capture from the Federation for both the RMFF and 10X reactors. The cloaking device is not as power hungry and is easier to make and power from conventional reactors or other power sources.  Unless the ships attacking us are ex-Federation ships taken by the Brotherhood, it’s unlikely they will have RMFF’s aboard them.”

“Excuse me, Captain,” one of the crew members monitoring systems on the bridge said, “the Brotherhood has launched a large number of torpedoes from their ships, and they all are headed toward the
HAPRIN;
if only half of them hit the ship, there will be nothing left of it.”

“Sokaia, this is Tibby; get your men off the
HAPRIN
now!” I commanded into the open communication link. “You have incoming torpedoes that will destroy the ship when they hit.  Do you read me?”  There was no reply, I watched the screen as the torpedoes drew ever closer to the
HAPRIN
.  “Sokaia, evacuate immediately!  That’s an order!”  I said just moments before our screen images were lost when the first of the torpedoes we were blocking impacted our RMFF shields, flashing brilliant white, and obscuring our view of the
HAPRIN. 
Moments later, just as our screen images cleared, we got a glimpse of the
HAPRIN
as the remaining torpedoes reached it and detonated in bright flashes of light.  I felt my heart sink, fearing Sokaia and her team had perished, and then I heard, “Sorry for the delay in replying, Admiral.  I had my hands full helping to make the last connection to the RMFF and activating it,” then as the images on the vid screen cleared and the outline of the
HAPRIN’s
hull appeared, she added, “We made it sir.  The shields are functional, and the
HAPRIN
is safe.”

“Well done, Captain,” I said, “You gave us quite a scare there for a minute.”

“Thank you, sir, however; I must give the credit to my team.  They were the ones that pulled it off, sir.”

“True,” I said, “but you were the one who trained and led that team, Captain.  Nevertheless, my congratulations to you all.”

“Admiral,” Captain Wanoll called for my attention, “The Brotherhood ships are fleeing.  What are your orders?”

“Have half of our fighters chase after them and do as much damage to their ships as possible for one day, and then return here,” I answered.  “Keep our larger ships here.”

By now, Marranalis had returned from the
NEW ORLEANS
.  “Captain Marranalis, get a team together and with the aid of Sokaia and her troopers round up all Brotherhood people still alive aboard the
HAPRIN,
and get them into confinement for interrogation.  I also want you to have a damage assessment team aboard the
HAPRIN
to determine the extent of damage.  I want an estimate of how long it will take to get the ship fully operational again.  Furthermore, find out what happened to our troops on the surface and how they are doing.  Contact Admirals Stonbersa and Kophious and have them meet us here in two hours.  I’m going to expect a preliminary update on our status at that time.  I’m heading to my suite until then.”

As I entered my suite, I was greeted by the sight of Kala sprawled out across a chair with her arm over her eyes, Reidecor was sitting on the floor crying as Lunnie tried to hand him toys, possibly in an attempt to calm him, or more likely because she had taken it from him, and Jenira, who was standing over them both, had told her to give it back.

“It looks like things have been interesting here today,” I said addressing the room.

“By the stars,” Kala muttered without moving the arm covering her eyes, “on days like this I just want to send them back to wherever they came from.”

I could see Jenira suppress a silent giggle as she bent down and picked Lunnie up, while Reidecor, having heard my voice, stopped crying and headed across the room to me.  “I think it’s been a bad day for everyone,” I said as I reached down and picked Reidecor up.  Immediately I noticed that rotten smell denoting a need for a diaper changing.

“The Brotherhood led us into a trap.  The
HAPRIN
has been badly damaged and may take a year or more to repair.  We won’t know until the full evaluation.  Sokaia and her team nearly got wiped out on the
HAPRIN
as the Brotherhood had prepared an ambush; they had hundreds of torpedoes heading in to destroy the ship.  Sokaia’s team managed to get the RMFF operational only a second or two before the torpedoes hit the shield.  If she hadn’t, they probably all would have been lost.”

Kala slowly sat up and was listening intently to what I was saying, while Jenira bounced Lunnie up and down on her hip.

“Were you able to defeat the Brotherhood?”  Kala asked.

“No, they escaped.  We did manage to blow up a few of their smaller ships, but the bulk of them got away.  I think this battle was pretty much a tie.  Slater thinks it was all a diversionary tactic set up by Ming.  He said Ming used a similar tactic back on Earth to draw the unified forces away from his much larger intended target thousands of kilometers away, only here it would be light-years away."

“So you think the Brotherhood is planning a major offensive someplace else, and they were trying to draw our ships here so they can attack elsewhere on an even bigger scale?  You don’t think its Megelleon, do you?” she said with alarm.

“No, I think it’s going to be in Sector 3, Admiral Kophious’s fleet section.  We were looking over the star charts earlier and with a strong and relatively unopposed strike in that sector, they could carve a large chunk of planets out of the Federation,” I responded, as I held Reidecor at an arm’s length, the smell was becoming a bit strong.  Jenira, seeing the look of disgust on my face, laughed silently as she set Lunnie down on the floor and then came and took Reidecor from me, after which she headed to a changing area set up in the kids’ room. 

“Will he be able to handle the attack?”  Kala asked.

“It’s hard to say,” I answered, “Kophious has moved most of his fleet to an adjoining area to this sector as we anticipated more action here, all part of what we think Ming wanted us to do.  We don’t know how much time we have before the Brotherhood strikes in Sector 3.  I’m issuing orders for Kophious to move as many of his fleet as quickly as possible to the area we now think is threatened.  I’m also hoping that A’Lappe and Cantolla have been able to finish their work on the large Cantolla gates that will allow us to move ships through them.  If we can transport the components through the Cantolla gate on the
DUSTEN
to the one on Kophious’s flagship, and hopefully get them assembled rapidly, we may be able to move a number of ships into Sector 3 soon.  If we can, we should be able to have them cloaked and waiting for the Brotherhood when they show up.  If the Brotherhood is going to try what we think, it will happen in less than a week, so we have a lot of work to do.”  I felt something tugging on my pant leg and looked down to see Lunnie’s smiling face looking up at me.  I picked her up and tickled her belly, and she squealed with laughter.