The Landfall Campaign (The Nameless War) (14 page)

The delay did at least give the tugs towing the cruisers
Typhoon
and
Cyclone
time to catch up after previously falling a week behind. As a result they had arrived at Dryad as one group. For Willis however,
Onslaught’s
problems further illustrated those of the entire squadron. The ships were old, their machinery obsolete, clapped out and, worse of all, unfamiliar to the crews that were supposed to work it. One hand on the controls and the other on the instruction manual was not a good way to fly a starship.

“
Skipper, we’re ready to detach from the tug,
”
Commander Horan reported.

“
Thank you, Commander,
”
she replied before switching on her intercom.
“
Bridge to Engineering. Chief, how are we doing back there?
”

“
The reactors are online and producing power,
”
Guinness’s voice crackled back across the link.
“
The generators are spun up so we are ready to detach from the tug
’
s power grid. Engines One, Three and Four are available for thrust.
”

“
Thank you, Chief,
”
she replied before breaking the connection.

It was another unwanted reminder of the state of her command. They
’
d blown out Engine Two just getting to the battle at Alpha Centauri. Guinness had managed to resuscitate it afterwards but a very firm suggestion was passed forwards to the bridge that it be regarded as strictly for emergency use only, and even then not to count on it.

“
Releasing docking clamps in two minutes. Tug will be moving upwards and away,
”
Horan called out.

“
Understood. Helm, when released use docking thrusters to move us downwards and away.
”

“
Understood.
”

“
Releasing clamps in ten.
”

Willis flicked her intercom to ship wide.

“
All hands, this is the bridge, prepare for docking release.
”

From the outer hull came a series of echoing clunks as the tug’s mag-clamps released their grip on
Hood
. On the main display the merged signals of the tug and
Hood
started to separate.

“
Captain, we have separation from tug of five hundred metres and opening,
”
the helmsman announced.

“
Signal from tug:
‘
Wishing you an uneventful tour
’
,
”
the communications officer called out.

Willis was pleased to see that
Hood
was the first ship to get underway. Within fifteen minutes the whole squadron was formed up. She could see the tugs on the main display, already several thousand kilometres away. Soon they’d be spinning their jump drives back up as they began their journey back to Earth.

“
I would have liked to have retained the tugs as part of my command to give us some degree of strategic mobility,
”
Shibanova said quietly before shrugging.
“
It wasn’t to be.
”

“
We never know what might be assigned to us in a few months, sir,
”
Willis said.

“
Hmm, best not to make too many optimistic assumptions on that point. Still one or two post-war cruisers would make a difference,
”
he replied.
“
However in the immediate term we must look towards training. Ship handling is not good. That is no slur upon any officer or crewmember. They are not used to their ships. I will be drawing up a training schedule that will give them that opportunity.
”
Shibanova stood up.
“
Commander, as soon the squadron is ready, take us to Dryad Two. The sooner we get started the better.
”

___________________________

Chief Engineer Guinness whistled cheerfully as he allowed himself to drift along the starboard engine room’s primary access way, making notes in his computer pad as he did so and drawing up the maintenance schedule for the week ahead. Even when new the
Hood’s
machinery had demanded a lot of attention, but now
…
the phrase
‘
running battle’ barely did it justice. With so much to maintain it was easy to get swamped. That was exactly what had happened on board
Onslaught
, where they hadn’t prioritised properly and that ship’s chief engineer was clearly way out of his depth. After he’d returned to
Hood
from
Onslaught
, the Admiral had requested a report on the competence of the ship’s engineering team. Guinness hadn’t particularly wanted to cast aspersions on others but the Admiral had insisted. If he was any judge,
Onslaught’s
chief would soon be finding himself reassigned back to Earth. Not the sort of thing you got thanked for. That aside it was still good to be under way again. There was nothing colder and sadder than a powered down engine room.

Rounding one of the radiation barriers Guinness found two ratings struggling with a bag. He recognised both as reservists, who were both supposed to be off duty.

“
Hello, what are you two doing?
”

Both had been so intent on their task they hadn’t seen him approach. They jumped and the bag slipped. One of them swore profusely as a puff of dust escaped.

“
Thought you two were supposed to be catching some Zs?
”

“
Yeah, well we
’
ve spent all day next to this thing Chief,
”
one of them replied, tapping the life support vent.
“
It’s a bit manky and we thought we’d try to do something about it.
”
 

It certainly was. Since the only gravitational effect outside the centrifuge was from acceleration, the air recycling vents tended to hoover up all the dust, food fragments and other crud in the air. This vent wasn’t by any means the worst he’d seen. Regular crews tended to get used to it, but these were reservists, not as accustomed to the less savoury aspects of space travel.

“
Alright, although we should be making a ten minute burn in about
…
five minutes. It will be easier once you have some Gs.
”

“
Thanks Chief.
”

Nodding, Guinness continued his rounds.

___________________________

The Dryad star was much older than Earth’s sun and was now nearing the end of its life. It had already gone through one expansion phase that scientists believed had probably consumed one of its innermost planets. It had also moved the Goldilocks zone, the band in which a planet would be the right temperature for liquid water, just far enough out to encompass the second planet in the system. This wouldn’t have been of any great interest except for two other factors. The first was that the initial survey ship found life on Dryad Two. Granted this was nothing more complicated than blue slime but it had been an unexpected find on a planet that had only been warm enough to have liquid water, in evolutionary terms, for a mere blink of an eye. The second was that once people started looking at the planet something even more interesting turned up: zillithium deposits. The mineral was important for among other things starship jump drives and to date otherwise unknown in human space. There were less effective alternatives to zillithium, such as the gold and uranium mix used by ships of
Hood’s
generation, but the mineral was about the only raw material that was worth the expense of interstellar shipping. The mining industry was at the heart of the local economy, but there were other subordinate operations elsewhere in the system.

An hour after first arriving in the solar system the squadron re-entered real space a safe distance from Dryad Two. Willis was pleased to see the four ships formed up into a neat diamond formation. For all their flaws they at least looked like real warships.

“
Sensors, are we seeing any of the guard ships?
”
she asked. At this range there wasn’t much hope of the radar picking up anything as small as a starship, especially with the mass of a planet behind it to provide ground returns. The passives on the other hand stood a reasonably good chance, since they knew roughly where the guard ship should be.

“
I’m registering a Myth Class cruiser in orbit close to the main base,
”
the duty officer at sensors reported eventually.
“
They
’
ve just lit up their engines Ma
’
am. Going on profile it looks to be the
Hermes
, but I’m not seeing any sign of any other warships, Ma’am.
”

“
Wasn’t there supposed to be still three cruisers out there?
”
Commander Horan quietly asked.

“
Weeks ago there was. We should be seeing three cruisers and three destroyers. But we might have missed something while we were in transit. We were supposed to be here a week ago, Alex,
”
Willis replied.

“
They surely can’t have left just one ship though. It would be an open invitation to Rizr to start something.
”

“
Yes.
”
Willis chewed on her lower lip for a moment before shrugging.
“
They must be somewhere.
”

“
Captain, we’ve just been challenged by the
Hermes
. We’ve been ordered to identify ourselves,
”
came the announcement from Communications.

That was a pretty quick response, Willis thought to herself. They were still about seven light seconds away from the planet but the challenge had been issued in a little under a minute. Not bad when you considered the transmission lag that the distance introduced.

“
Well they aren’t asleep. They mustn’t have our engine profiles on record though,
”
Horan remarked.

“
No reason for them to. Coms, send our ID and inform them that we are their relief and request approach vector to dock with the base.
”
She waited patiently as their reply was transmitted. There was a long pause, longer than the distance alone would introduce. In all probability with their unfamiliar engine profiles, their authorisation codes were being checked and double-checked. Finally however they were given clearance to approach the planet.

“
Commander, you have the bridge,
”
Willis said to Horan as she got to her feet.
“
I want to have a word with the Admiral before we dock. I don’t like the fact we’re only seeing one ship.
”

“
The other two and the destroyers might be out in the system somewhere,
”
Horan suggested.

“
Maybe,
”
Willis replied unconvinced.
“
But it seems an odd time to be showing the flag to the outer settlements.
”

“
Just the
Hermes
?
”
Shibanova asked as he looked up from the cabin’s computer console.
“
Please Commander, sit down, you are making the place look untidy.
”

The Admiral waited for her to seat herself on the chair.

“
They could have just been summoned back to Earth. We are unfortunately a week late, sir,
”
Willis said.

“
They were left behind by the Second Fleet because the
Hades
was having mechanical problems and the destroyers were the oldest with the Second Fleet. I find it unlikely that if they weren’t brought when Earth was in direct danger, that they would be sent back before we could arrive.
”
The Admiral paused and scratched the back of his head.
“
Once we dock, I will of course be going onto the base to pay my respects to the base admiral. I want you to contact the Captain of the
Hermes
and pay a visit. We need to know what has been happening here.
”

“
They will be able to provide a tactical download as they hand over to us, sir. Although getting it into a file format our computer can handle might be tricky.
”