TFS Navajo: The Terran Fleet Command Saga – Book 3 (31 page)

With full power now available for their energy weapons and their AIs now having completed an extensive damage assessment,
Zhelov
and
Serapion
concentrated their fire with the intention of causing the complete structural failure of both Terran cruisers as quickly as possible. Bolts of intense, orange-tinted energy peeled back layer after layer of their targets’ hulls, focusing on locations that had already sustained heavy damage from the
Rusalovs’
artillery rounds as well as their own missile strikes.

Ironically,
Koori
was the first to succumb, becoming (in spite of her modifications) the shortest-lived major combatant warship in Human history. Just before being hit by a final salvo of six nuclear-tipped artillery rounds, her hull buckled and failed just forward of her aft dorsal gun mount. The breech vented a number of the ship’s most critical internal compartments to space while also allowing
Serapion’s
energy weapons to penetrate deeper and deeper within until, finally — her reactors destroyed and all of her major systems offline — she simply ceased operation, drifting helplessly. By the time the final wave of artillery rounds arrived, their additional destructive power was largely redundant. As each round penetrated the
Koori’s
hull, the bodies of her remaining crew were instantly vaporized as much of her recently completed interior was reduced to brightly glowing masses of molten metal.

Less than six seconds later, TFS
Shawnee
suffered a similar fate. Just before the last salvo of artillery rounds reached her battered hull, however, she did manage to let fly with two final rounds of her own. Each huge kinetic energy penetrator reached the
Zhelov
just over three seconds later. The first round passed easily through the battleship’s shields before slicing through her armored starboard side and entering her cavernous hangar bay. The entire compartment was instantly consumed in an enormous fireball as the shell’s energy was transferred to thousands of tons of what had been hull material, spacecraft, and maintenance equipment just moments before. The second round, although beginning its flight only twenty meters from the first, was deflected slightly upward as it penetrated its target’s outer armor. Fortunately for the crew of the
Zhelov
, this new trajectory dramatically reduced the amount of damage inflicted on her internal spaces. Passing briefly through an unpressurized maintenance corridor, the round exited through a relatively flat section of the battleship’s hull — completely destroying her dorsal gravitic beam weapon array in the process.

Although one of their number had been effectively destroyed and another seriously damaged, the Resistance ships now seemed to rally — spurred on by the elimination of the first two Terran warships. With no appreciable delay, all four battleships altered course in an effort to better position themselves for a final assault against the remaining two undamaged enemy cruisers. Simultaneously, the two Human cruisers completed their turns back towards the engagement zone in preparation for resuming their own attack. Inexplicably, however, neither ship opened fire.

The two
Rusalov
battleships, having the benefit of rotating “gunhouse” mounts for their main guns, were the first to shift their fire to the remaining two Terran cruisers. A total of twelve rounds immediately streaked away at over five thousand kilometers per second, this time aimed to converge on the cruiser
Shoshone
just under nineteen seconds later. Eight seconds into their flight, however, the starfield ahead of the projectiles seemed to blur and distort convulsively, followed by a flash of grayish-white light as yet another, seemingly identical Terran cruiser appeared directly in the shells’ path. What at first appeared to the captains of the Resistance ships to be a stroke of good luck quickly proved otherwise as all twelve rounds reached the location of the new Human warship and — amid brilliant flashes of white light — were deflected harmlessly away into space.

TFS
Cossack
had joined the battle.

TFS Navajo, Earth-Sun Lagrange Point 2

(Combat Information Center - 1.5x10
6
km from Earth)

“Alright, alright, pipe down, people!” Admiral Patterson bellowed, trying to restore order to the normally tranquil Combat Information Center. Having witnessed the destruction of both the
Koori
and the
Shawnee
just seconds earlier, the arrival of TFS
Cossack
— followed immediately thereafter by a successful demonstration of her gravitic shields — had incited the room to something just short of a riot. “We will celebrate when
all
enemy forces have been destroyed. Until then, I need this room quiet, focused, and each of you on point.” Patterson paused and glanced around the room for a moment at all of the smiling, triumphant faces turned his way. “Hooyah?” he prompted, with just a hint of a smile.

“HOOYAH!” came the thunderous, enthusiastic reply.

“Very good. Now get back to work!” he concluded, turning back to his tactical officer at the holographic table.

“Sir, the battleship that took two rounds from the
Shawnee’s
main guns ceased fire on her gravitic beam weapon immediately afterwards. Based on the timing of the damage, I’d say she’s lost the capability to stop our ships from entering hyperspace.”

“That’s good news, but I don’t know if we can be certain that’s the case.
Theseus’
data seemed to indicate that the beam came from one of two separate arrays, depending on their position relative to the
Baldev
. I think it’s safe to say, however, that as long as our ships remain above her dorsal surface, she won’t be able to use the weapon.”

“Shall we send that information, sir?” he asked.

“Absolutely,” Patterson replied, nodding to Ensign Fletcher.

“Sending now, sir,” she responded immediately.

“Our goal is to take no more
Rusalov
main battery hits on our unshielded ships, Commander,” Patterson continued. “
Cossack
is to continue to close with the two remaining
Rusalovs
and take them out as quickly as possible. If her upgraded reactors are working as advertised, her rate of fire should be increased as well. As long as the incoming artillery rounds can’t get through her shields, she should be more than a match for both of them.”

“And the two
Baldevs
?”

“Are in serious trouble,” Patterson replied with a savage grin. “They are primarily energy weapon platforms and, although quite powerful in their own right, are much more effective against our ships when paired with kinetic energy weapons. I think it’s safe to say they will be losing access to those shortly.”

“So
Shoshone
and
Chickasaw
should resume their attack against the
Baldevs
, then? Sorry, sir, but won’t they simply transition to hyperspace to avoid our heavy railgun fire?”

“They might, but I’ll be surprised if they are able to do so. That’s the mistake I mentioned earlier. Based on the analyses from Dagger and Crossbow, we believe that once their aft supplemental shields are engaged, they’re essentially stuck where they are. We know for sure that the additional shields encumber their sublight engine nozzles, but we have also seen indications that they prevent the ships from transitioning to hyperspace. And if they drop their supplemental shields —”

“Yes, sir,” he replied, nodding his understanding.

“One more thing, Commander. I want
all
enemy ships destroyed in detail. Understood?”

“Understood,” the tactical officer replied gravely.

“I’m not saying we won’t give quarter … we’re not about to start behaving like them. What I
am
telling you is that we will continue our attacks until all enemy ships have either surrendered unconditionally or are completely destroyed.”

“Yes, Admiral. Does that include the
Gunov
as well?”

Patterson considered the question for a moment, replaying the merciless destruction of severely damaged Human and Resistance vessels in his mind. “Let’s cross that bridge when we come to it, Commander. I can’t imagine any circumstances where Sarafi would surrender. And even if he did, we would have no way of ensuring that he wasn’t preparing to launch his bio weapon under a flag of truce.”

Chapter 21

SCS Gunov

(7.1x10
6
km from Earth)

Commodore Naveen Sarafi stared impassively at the spectacle playing out in real-time on his bridge display screen. He had watched with pride as the first two Terran cruisers had met their demise — portents, he had assumed, of victory’s inevitable approach. That had been just minutes ago, had it not? Yet, what he now saw on the
Gunov’s
various situation displays foretold not of his enemies’ destruction, but rather his own. By his AI’s count, the shielded Human warship had now absorbed at least twenty-six direct hits from his two
Rusalov
battleships’ main guns. He surmised that there was likely only one such vessel available to attack his forces, but it had immediately become obvious that one would be more than enough. In a last ditch effort to overwhelm its shields and retake the initiative, Sarafi had ordered the
Zhelov
and
Serapion
to ignore the remaining two Terran cruisers and concentrate their fire on the newcomer. Even with a combined barrage from the two
Rusalovs’
main batteries supported by enfilade energy weapons fire from the two
Baldev
-class battleships, however, the new Human warship had proven to be all but indestructible. Predictably, the two remaining Terran cruisers had taken full advantage of the opportunity, sending their own deadly streams of railgun and energy weapons fire streaking downrange to slam into his two most powerful remaining warships.

“Forgive me, Commodore, but should we not consider a strategic withdrawal at this point?” Freyda asked, bracing herself for a wide range of possible responses. “You have spoken to me before regarding the importance of demonstrating the danger posed by the rapid Terran military buildup thanks to their Pelaran allies. As distasteful as it is to settle for anything less than a total victory, we can now return home with undeniable proof that the Sajeth Collective must unify and commit itself to eliminating this threat once and for all.”

“No, Ragini,” he replied with a weary sigh, “I am afraid it is far too late for that at this point. You heard Naftur as well as I did. Even after generations of relative peace and prosperity under the banner of the Sajeth Collective, Graca’s participation in the alliance has never been particularly popular among our people. A great majority of them favor a return to home rule, and we would have certainly seen that come to pass many times in the past were it not for the tacit support of the dynastic houses. Regardless of what you may think of Rugali Naftur, he is precisely the kind of leader who could unite the houses in coalition.”

“And you believe he would end Gracan participation in the Collective?”

“I believe he will do much more than that, Commander. The Sajeth Collective was little more than a loosely organized economic development and trading partnership prior to Graca’s accession. Even now, there is little chance that it would survive Graca’s withdrawal. In fact, our world’s exit from the Collective will be so catastrophic that it would not surprise me to see several of the remaining members declare war in a last ditch effort to protect their interests.”

“If they do, they will surely be destroyed,” Freyda declared flatly.

“In the case of open military conflict, that is almost certainly true,” Sarafi replied, as exclamations of dismay and anger erupted from various locations around the
Gunov’s
bridge.

Both officers glanced up at the display screen just in time to see SCS
Zhelov
— fire belching from the open wounds caused by over one hundred impacts from the Terran cruisers’ main guns — flare brilliantly as her drive section exploded. Both officers observed silently that the primary source of the blast’s destructive power must have been the ship’s propellant storage tanks. Perhaps due to their arrangement deep within the hull, the resulting blast wave traveled in a rapidly expanding “V” shape as it struggled ferociously to break free of its confinement. Watching from the
Gunov’s
position, it was as if the hands of a colossal giant had grasped each end of the battleship, then snapped it into two pieces like nothing more than a dry, brittle twig. The entire bridge crew stared at the screen for a long moment, transfixed as the two halves of the enormous ship tumbled away in opposite directions. Judging by the state of the three remaining battleships, every officer in the room knew that they too would be destroyed in short order.

“As I was saying,” Sarafi continued in a strangely detached tone, “conventional military operations are of little utility against a superior enemy force. This will obviously be the case if the less powerful members of the Sajeth Collective seek to force Graca to remain in the alliance. I believe that it is now also the case for our struggle against the Terran puppets of the Pelaran Alliance. History has repeatedly taught us that when situations like this occur, the less powerful belligerent is often forced to resort to some form of asymmetric warfare.”

Freyda felt a chill travel the length of her spine as she realized the commodore’s intentions. She had, of course, known from the beginning that deploying the Sazoch delivery system was a potential option, but she never truly believed that it would come to that. Like most Wek officers who had volunteered for the Resistance task force, she had always assumed that any military conflict with the Terrans would be short-lived. The powerful Sajeth Collective would simply deal with the Terrans, then just as quickly find a means of dispatching the Pelaran Guardian. The entire conflict would be over in short order, with the Sol system coopted as a new, albeit involuntary, associate of the Sajeth Collective.

As one of the two remaining
Rusalov
battleships was declared combat ineffective by the
Gunov’s
battle management AI, Freyda was forced to acknowledge how utterly naive she had been from the outset. “We do not have to do this, sir,” she began again.

“You are correct, Commander.
We
do not.” Sarafi smiled. “Just as the destruction of the disabled Terran vessels at the secondary rally point was my responsibility alone, I also bear the burden of the decision on how best to complete our mission. You are a good and moral officer, Ragini, so it is only natural that you would be uncomfortable with being forced to make such a difficult decision. Consider, however, how far the Humans have come in a relatively short period of time. Granted, if a larger portion of our fleet had been here fighting alongside us today, we would almost certainly have made short work of their relatively small force. But the question you must ask yourself is whether that will still be the case a year from now — even if we assume that an opportunity like this presents itself again. No, Commander, this is our one and only chance. We must deliver the Sazoch weapon and then depart immediately for Damara.”

TFS Theseus

(2.5x10
6
km from Earth)

“Sir, the last of the
Rusalov
-class battleships has been destroyed,” Lieutenant Commander Schmidt reported from Tactical 1.

The sense of elation experienced by the bridge crew while watching TFS
Cossack, Shoshone,
and
Chickasaw
go about the methodical, almost businesslike elimination of the Resistance warships had been short-lived. Each now took a moment to glance up with conflicting emotions at the destruction their forces had wrought on their enemies while at the same time looking forward to finally putting this battle behind them. On the view screen, several huge pieces of the once-mighty Resistance battleship rotated at varying rates as they moved steadily away from one other — each one riddled with dimly glowing holes where artillery rounds had either penetrated or exited her armored hull. At her peak rate of fire, the fully-upgraded cruiser
Cossack
had achieved nearly eight salvos per minute — a total of sixty-four shells — each of which had slammed into her targets with a shocking level of accuracy and destructive power. Out of curiosity, Commander Reynolds had placed the newest cruiser’s hull impacts counter on the tactical plot, just below that of the
Theseus
. In spite of the massive volume of main battery artillery and energy weapons fire she had received, the ship’s AI had registered only four hits — none of which had caused any significant damage.

“Thank you, Schmidt,” Prescott replied after a long pause.

“The Sajeth Collective — the Wek in particular — have been building starships for hundreds of years,” Reynolds observed quietly, in awe of what they had all just witnessed on the bridge view screen. “I would never presume to tempt fate by making comments about a battle that has not yet been won, but does it not seem strange that the Pelarans would have provided weapons technology that is far in excess of what they believed we truly needed?”

“I don’t suppose I’ve ever thought about it that way before. So you think they expect that we will ultimately be facing more dangerous enemies than the Sajeth Collective?”

“Maybe … then again, they didn’t provide
all
of the technology that has gone into our warships. But I can’t imagine they would ever want us to have access to more military capability than they thought absolutely necessary. Why set us up as a potential rival before we’ve even joined their alliance?”

“Lieutenant Commander Schmidt,” Prescott continued without further comment on the subject, “I expect Admiral Patterson will clear the cruisers to open fire on the
Gunov
shortly. When that happens, he believes she will transition to hyperspace immediately. The question is whether she will retreat or press on with her attack on the Earth itself. Watch her closely and report any changes immediately.”

“Aye, sir.”

“Helm, if she decides to attack, we expect she will jump directly into low orbit — perhaps even just inside the upper atmosphere. Can you plot an atmospheric C-Jump from our current position?”

“Yes, sir. In fact, I’ve already got several rough-plotted, just in case. With your permission, however, I’d like to put us in a little better alignment. That way, once she jumps, we’ll be just a few seconds behind her.”

“Excellent, do it. Once you are satisfied, pass the data along to the other three ships in our reserve squadron. I’d like them to follow us in, if possible, but we don’t need them transitioning inside our hull when they do.”

“Will do, Captain.”

“Tactical, our primary objective is not to attack the
Gunov
herself, but to intercept and completely destroy the Sazoch. The intel we have on the biological agent involved leads us to believe that it may be susceptible to heat, so once we find it, we will engage with energy weapons only.”

“Aye, sir,” Lieutenant Lau replied, “… if we can find it.”

“True enough,” Prescott sighed. “I wish I had more to offer you on that subject, but there just hasn’t been enough time for our Science and Engineering Directorate to develop anything like a ‘sure thing’ detection strategy. All I can tell you is to hammer the hell out of the area with every active sensor we have and hope that we find it in time. The flagship will be attempting to coordinate with some ground-based detection systems as well, but …”

“But there’s not a lot of time for that kind of thing, sir,” Schmidt offered.

“No, I’m afraid not, but if Fisher puts us right on top of the
Gunov
immediately after she jumps, I have to believe we’ll see
something
.”

“There she goes, sir!” Lieutenant Lau reported excitedly as the Tactical console emitted a series of urgent-sounding warning tones.

Four and a half million kilometers away — with
Serapion
now in her death throes and TFS
Cossack
maneuvering to begin her attack on the Resistance flagship — the
Gunov
transitioned to hyperspace once again.

“Fisher?” Prescott said expectantly.

“Almost there, sir. One zero seconds.”

SCS Gunov, Low Earth Orbit

(Approaching the Philippine Islands)

“Hyperdrive disengaged,” the Wek helm officer reported, although he need not have done so with Terra’s largest ocean now completely filling the bridge display screen. “Deceleration burn commencing,” he continued, as the destroyer’s forward-facing retrograde engines quickly deployed and engaged at their maximum rated thrust.

“Confirming launch commit of the first Sazoch delivery vehicle. Firing in ten seconds,” Commodore Sarafi said, mostly to himself out of force of habit as he entered the required launch authorization codes at his Command workstation.

Sitting less than two meters away, Commander Freyda felt paralyzed by indecision. Since unexpectedly hearing Prince Naftur’s voice addressing the Resistance task force upon their arrival, she had been silently replaying his words over and over again in her mind:
“… it is still not too late to end the bloodshed … end it now before our world is forever darkened by a shame so heinous that we shall never again regain our honor.”
But it truly
was
too late now, wasn’t it? The first Sazoch weapon would be launched regardless of any actions she chose to take at this point. The sense of inevitability that accompanied this thought caused a wave of relief to wash through her mind — relief that, for better or worse, she was now freed from any personal responsibility for what was about to happen.