The Landfall Campaign (The Nameless War) (65 page)

“
Full sweep!
”
Alanna barked as she switched the controls back to manual and twitched the fighter to starboard.

“
Contact!
”
shouted Schurenhofer,
“
Bearing zero, zero, one dash, zero, zero, two, range
nine hundred K
!
”

Too close, too straight, thought Alanna as she threw Dubious into a violent corkscrew.

“
Leader,
”
came Malm
’
s highly excited voice.
“
It
’
s an enemy escort. I
’
m engaging!
”
As he spoke Curious
’
s engines went full burn and the fighter shot past Dubious.

“
Curious! NO!
”
Alanna shouted, and then swore savagely as she rammed the throttle forward.
“
Set guns for auto defensive fire, forward arc!
”
she ordered as they chased after Curious. On her radar screen she could see the blue blip for Curious, the red for the Nameless ship and then four new contacts that suddenly appeared, small and closing fast on Curious. Malm saw the danger, he must have done, but always with humans there was that horrible reaction lag. Dubious
’
s computer didn
’
t have that lag and both the dorsal and ventral turrets rattled into action. Two Nameless missiles burst as streams of plasma bolts struck them. Curious twisted violently, her ventral gun belatedly starting to fire. Another Nameless missile was riddled, but the fourth exploded and sent a spray of shrapnel toward Curious. On Alanna
’
s HUD a damaged icon appeared beside Curious but the fighter
’
s engines were still firing.

Alanna swung Dubious back towards the Nameless. The threat detection system let out a whine as the Nameless locked onto them.

“
No countermeasures.
”
she snapped at Schurenhofer before the weapons controller could react.

The Nameless was turning away from them, which also brought its two broadside launchers to bear. Another pair of dual-purpose missiles erupted. A bit big for anti-fighter work and too small to be good in the anti-ship role, no real threat to a pilot that knew their job unless in large numbers. Against fighters their biggest use was as counters to Dubious
’
s anti-ship missiles. Dubious spat a stream of plasma bolts from the turret guns taking out the missiles bearing down on them. With their missiles fired, the Nameless had nothing left to stop the two anti-ship missiles nestled within Dubious
’
s bomb bay. The ship started to translucent as it began the jump out process.

“
Lock missiles.
”
Alanna barked out

“
We have l….
”
Schurenhofer called out.
“
We
’
ve lost it!
”
as Dubious shot past the ship.

Alanna swore savagely as she tried to drag the nose round. As she got them pointed the right way the Nameless ship was fading from the radar display. The targeting computer trilled as it locked on. Alanna rested her thumb on the firing button. Then lifted it away. The burst of acceleration meant they were still moving away from the Nameless ship, so their missiles would have to come to a relative halt before they could start to close. By the time they reached the target, it would be gone. On the radar display, the ship disappeared.

Ten minutes after Dubious and Curious landed back on
Deimos
the convoy jumped away. The next stop would be Landfall. The hangar had barely finished repressurising before Alanna was up and out. In the second hangar the deck crew was already examining the damage to the port wing, while Malm and Rackow pulled themselves out of the cockpit.

“
Everyone out. Now!
”
she snarled. She had no authority over the deck crew and the personnel hesitated, glancing at their deck chief.
“
I am not fucking asking you!
”
she added menacingly. The deck chief pushed off towards the hatch, his people followed and Rackow darted after them, leaving Alanna alone with Malm.

Alanna pushed herself down until she felt her boot magnets engage.

“
Look, I…
”
he started to say.

“
I didn
’
t ask you to speak,
”
Alanna cut him off as she examined the damage. High velocity impacts created distinctive damage patterns. The hits didn
’
t appear to have intersected with anything vital.

“
What
’
s the standard Nameless response to a short range jump in?
”
she asked.

“
At ranges zero to five thousand kilometres the Nameless fire at the jump in portal as it forms. Missiles are programmed to accelerate to a velocity that will allow them to get within five hundred kilometres of the portal before it fully forms, they then shut down engines. When fighters emerge, missiles go to seeker mode and reactivate their engines,
”
replied Malm.

“
And the standard response for the fighters?
”

“
Evasive manoeuvres immediately after re-entering real space to get out of the missiles
’
targeting cones before their engines come back online.
”

“
What should the fighters not do?
”
Alanna asked with studied calm.

“
Go straight in.
”

“
What did you do?
”

Malm swallowed hard and closed his eyes.

“
Go straight in.
”

“
If I hadn
’
t done what I did, you
’
d be dead. And you know what? That was a mistake by me because if I hadn
’
t I might have been able to nail that ship before it jumped away.
”
Alanna stared at him,
“
but it did get away and there goes our element of surprise. I want you to think about that when all hell breaks loose over Landfall. Now get out.
”

She heard a murmur of words at the hatch as Malm left.

“
Quite a dressing down, Lieutenant,
”
said a voice unexpectedly. Alanna spun round as Crowe drifted around Curious
’
s wing.

“
Sir, I
’
m sorry, I didn
’
t know you were here.
”

“
Yeah, I got that,
”
Crowe replied as he landed in front of her.
“
But then when one of my fighters comes back missing bits and my deck chief is complaining that he
’
s been chased out of his own hangar, where would I be?
”

“
Yes sir.
”

“
But as I said that was quite a dressing down you gave him.
”

“
Yes sir. As senior pilot I felt it necessary. He made a clumsy mistake and was lucky to get away with it. We dropped in too close to it. It saw our portal start to form and started spinning up its drive.
”

“
Yes.
”
Crowe ran his finger along one of the punctures through the wing.
“
We both know that luck is something we all need but can never depend on. You jumped based on our calculations. The damage was done before you dropped back into real space. We detected an FTL transmission from the escort. It was cut short when you attacked and forced it to jump, but
…”

“
But they know we
’
re coming.
”

“
Yes. We
’
ve lost the element of surprise.
”

___________________

19
th
August 2067, 06:30 Douglas Time

Two light seconds beyond the Landfall Red Line space rippled and then opened slowly to form a jump portal from which the ships of Kite String filed back into real space. Fighters rolled away from their base ships and headed for their assigned stations. In the surrounding space, the convoy
’
s arrival was noted.

When a fleet courier gave them notice that a convoy would be arriving in a matter of days, Eulenburg had ordered a bed be set up for him in a small office of Four C
’
s. He was asleep when the watchkeepers reported the arrival of a large number of ships. He was up and out before any of the duty watch managed to buzz him. Captain Gillum appeared almost immediately at his elbow, trying to smooth down his sleep tousled hair before giving up and ramming his cap down on it.
“
The convoy?
”
he asked.

“
I hope so Captain.
”
Between the jammers and physical destruction of Landfall
’
s detection grid, all the system could say was that something had definitely just arrived. The sensor operators were working hard to coax more out of the tattered remnants of the grid and Eulenburg had to force himself not to start issuing orders when everyone was already doing everything they could.

“
Has Governor Reynolds been informed?
”
he asked the day officer as he stared up at the holo display.

“
No sir,
”
the man replied.
“
I thought you might want to wait - just in case this is another false alarm.
”

Eulenburg shook his head.

“
No. If she wants a position of authority here, then she
’
s going to have to deal with it like the rest of us. Is it still raining upstairs?
”

“
Torrential sir.
”

“
The fighters?
”

“
We currently have four Ravens, five Pegasus and the last Typhoon operational,
”
Gillum replied.

“
Prep them all.
”

As Gillum hurried away Governor Reynolds arrived in Four C, wrapped in a dressing gown, still rubbing the sleep from her eyes. Eulenburg acknowledged her with a nod.

“
Is it Kite String Admiral?
”
she asked.

“
That
’
s what we
’
re waiting to find out.
”

“
Admiral sir, report from sensors,
”
called out a lieutenant.
“
The new contacts are about two light seconds beyond the Red Line. It
’
s a tight formation of about fifty ships. Contacts are on an orbital insertion track, moving at low acceleration.
”

“
It
’
s the convoy,
”
Eulenburg breathed.
“
They
’
re finally here.
”

“
Sir, all the enemy ships within detection range are breaking orbit. The ones around Breaker
’
s Rock and the moon are definitely powering up their engines.
”

“
I
’
ll contact my people, Admiral. We
’
ll get the work parties gathered,
”
said Reynolds before turning to leave.

“
Thank you Governor. Captain Gillum, alert all commands. Let them know that Kite String is inbound.
”

___________________

07:20 Douglas Time

With the bridge depressurised it was completely silent. Crowe could hear only the hiss of the intercom carrier wave. There were more Nameless visible in the system than they
’
d hoped, but less than they
’
d feared. The Nameless non-combatants and a couple of bombards were scuttling away into the darkness of interplanetary space. Under different circumstances the Battle Fleet ships would have been able to chase them down with ease. But as the convoy continued to push in toward Landfall the Nameless warships were deploying to meet them. The opening shots were perhaps only minutes away but right now things were looking pretty good. The Nameless taskforce was largely made up of escorts, a few cruisers and so far one capital ship. On his display Crowe could see the convoy formation. This time round it was tight, with everyone where they were supposed to be.