The Last Charge (The Nameless War Trilogy Book 3) (12 page)

“He’s offered to let us stay – for free as long as we take care of the place. I think he expected the janitor to still be around, but he was the first to fuck off. I know it’s not perfect but...” he trailed off.

They’d been in
Dublin covering updates from Fleet Headquarters as the battle was fought out there in the solar system. But as it ground on without resolution, a world that had become used to reliable energy suddenly discovered what happened when the hydrogen flow was turned off. The network wanted coverage from a major European capital. They could have used a local reporter but they wanted one of their own. A couple of other networks were prepared to pay syndication fees to use the footage, which sweetened the deal. They’d offered every available news team huge bonuses to stay in Europe a little longer. Jeff’s crew was an amalgamation of those few prepared stay.

Fool’s gold
, Jeff thought to himself. If missiles started raining down, then the health of anyone’s bank balance would count for exactly jack-shit. But what would he have done if he had been home? If this was the end of the world, where did he want to spend it? Rattling around in an apartment that wasn’t home, but just a place where he kept his stuff? He could have gone to his parents and spent his last days with them and his family.
I’d rather step out of an airlock in my birthday suit
, he thought to himself. Richard and Marie both had spouses, who they pretty soon would not be in a position to contact, let alone get home to.

“Well, we knew we were taking a risk,” Jeff said.

“Yeah, we did,” Richard agreed. He shook his head and Jeff realised with embarrassment there were tears in the other man’s eyes. “I’m up to my ears in debt but what the hell will money be worth soon?”

“If the fleet wins – then the same as it was last month.”

“If it was going to win, it would have done so by now,” Marie abruptly put in. “Here we are at the start of the end of days providing
expert
coverage for people back home that by now probably don’t have electricity to power their screens.”

In the distance, at the visible edge of the city, an entire section of lights went out.

“Shit! It’s started!” Marie exclaimed as she sprang towards her camera.

Jeff pulled off his jacket and smoothed down his hair.

“And... go,” she muttered as she got the camera settled.

“Tonight, Ladies and Gentlemen, in the great city of
London, I am witnessing something not seen in over a century. Tonight, Ladies and Gentlemen, all over Europe the lights are going out.”

21st January 2068 

On the main holo, the blip with multiple damage codes wavered and vanished.

“Bridge, Sensors!
Illustrious
has jumped.”

Berg was too busy shouting orders at Helm and Fire Control to have time to acknowledge.

“Helm! Give me sideslip to port! Guns! Target all missiles on contact FC1 and fire!”

Mantis
shuddered as she coughed out four slammer missiles towards the enemy fighter carrier. There wasn’t a hope in hell any of them would make it through, but if it forced the Nameless to use several of their own to intercept them, then that was a good enough trade off. Off to port,
Puma
was still breaking up as she was wracked by explosions. As the closest ship to the enemy when the four Nameless cruisers jumped in, she hadn’t stood much of a chance. But she thinned much of the first wave of missiles and mauled one cruiser with gunfire before she herself was torn open.
Wasp
, her armament gutted by two direct hits, was running for her life as the crew frantically tried to get the jump drive back online. Off to starboard, there was a swirling melee of fighters. One of the carrier’s flights had been flying escort when the Nameless arrived. They’d stopped the cap ship missiles aimed at the carrier, but couldn’t deal with all the dual-purpose ones that followed. The standby flight was taken out on the deck. Then a Nameless carrier jumped in and disgorged its entire complement. All the Ravens could do was to attempt to tie up the enemy fighters. 

“Coms. Anything from
Wasp
?” Berg demanded.

“Only that they need more time.”

Berg looked towards her screen. There was an open link to Captain Liv on
Scorpion
.

“We can’t stay here much longer,” she said as
Mantis
jolted violently.

“We
have
to give them a little more time,” the Bull replied tightly.

The two destroyers were accelerating backwards away from the Nameless. They kept their guns bearing on the enemy but any hit could take out either ship’s jump drive. Weaving, dodging and copious amounts of chaff was the only thing keeping
Mantis
and
Scorpion
alive. But they were playing Russian roulette and the Nameless only had to be lucky once.

“Sir, we’re crossing the line between courage and stupidity!” Berg called. The incoming missiles thinned and she turned and snapped at fire control.

“Guns, switch target – two salvoes at target C3.”

One bolt struck home and on the holo the computer highlighted fragments blasting clear. A second later a Nameless missile got through
Mantis
’s point defence fire. A gouge was ripped in the port engine nacelle and coolant began to vent as the hull was peppered with missile fragments. Berg spun towards the damage control display. Several sections were blinking red and two thrusters had gone dark. A second later one came back online as the Lazarus systems found a working connection.

Berg opened her mouth to shout at Liv again, when she was cut off.

“Bridge, Sensors.
Wasp
has jumped!”

“Navigation, give me jump calculations. Helm, stand ready to make the turn,” she barked.

There was no signal from
Scorpion
. The Bull knew that for this manoeuvre, the captain had to rely on his or her own judgement to choose the moment to spin the ship around so that the jump drive would face in the direction of travel. It was an action that would also turn all their heavy weapons away from the enemy. Berg leaned forward in her seat, staring intently at the holo. Another missile burst close enough for
Mantis
to be hit by fragments. There was a gap between one salvo and another. Was it enough for
Mantis
to turn and engage her jump drive?

“Helm, now!”

With damage to the port side thrusters, the helmsman didn’t attempt to spin and instead flipped
Mantis
vertically. From the bows came the whine of the drive spinning up. Point defence continued to blaze away but the plasma cannons now had no target and the destroyer’s course steadied as she prepared to jump. Two Cap Ship missiles locked on and powered in.

“Jumping!” shouted the Navigator as the jump portal opened ahead of them.
Mantis
lunged through into safety.

“So much for the opinions of those who thought we should have stripped the armour off,” said Captain Chothia of the
Illustrious
across the laser hook up. “That first hit would have crippled us if we hadn’t had the plate to stop it.”

He looked exhausted. Designed before jump drives for fighters had been developed, of the pre-war carriers
Illustrious
uniquely had cruiser level armour. It had saved her, but only just. All the hangars on one side were wrecked and half the engines were bleeding coolant or plasma.

The expression on group commander Rear Admiral Paahlisson’s face suggested that at best he regarded this as cold comfort. With the task group returned to the safety of interstellar space, it was time to take stock and the picture was not pretty. The conference screen was segmented to show the face of each ship’s commander. The
Wasp
had lost power shortly after arriving and, now mostly evacuated, she hung from the side of the support ship
Samuel Clemens
. So the screen was now split only four ways.

“Yes, Captain,” Paahlisson said. “But unfortunately the level of damaged sustained is well beyond what we can repair ourselves. It was brave work by Commander Liv, covering
Wasp
.”

It was foolish
, Berg thought to herself. There was no way
Wasp
could be repaired in time to be of any use in this fight. But they’d nearly thrown good after bad trying to save her. The Admiral’s chilly tone suggested he thought the same. But somehow, even misplaced bravery had to be congratulated. 

“What condition are your ships in?” Paahlisson continued. “Are they combat worthy?”

“In our case no,” said Liv. “Fire Control took a hit just as we made our jump. We may be able to…”

“And you, Commander Berg?” Paahlisson cut him off.

“We have some damage, sir, which we can repair from our own resources. My ship can still fight.”

“Good. I want you to resupply your ship from the
Samuel Clemens
. You will then escort our ammunition ships, first to the resupply point for
Huáscar
. You’ll leave one of the ammunition ships with them. You are then to proceed to the
Dauntless
Task Group and attach yourself to them. We’re out of this fight but we have to get whatever we can back in. Commander Liv, your ship will remain here to provide
Illustrious
with close escort.”

“Sir, I would like to suggest we transfer some flight crews to
Mantis
before she leaves,” said Chothia. “We now have more crews than we have fighters to put them in.”

“Make it happen,” Paahlisson said.

A day later
Mantis
, her damaged hull freshly patched, led the two ammunition ships away from the mauled carrier.

22nd January 2068
 

Staff Captain Sheehan tapped on the hatch before stepping through. A quick sweep of the cabin’s work and sleeping areas was enough to establish the Admiral wasn’t there. Sheehan sighed to himself – that left only one other place he would be.

Not many of the crew were around. With the battleship landed and shut down, there wasn’t anything like enough real work to occupy the entire crew. The ship’s internals were now gleaming from stem to stern, so even the make work exercises were exhausted. Passing through the crew areas, Sheehan could hear an argument going on. Looking into the ratings’ mess, he could see a pair of then swearing at each other in at least two different languages. In the corner of the mess, half a dozen other ratings were playing cards, totally ignoring the noise behind them. A petty officer was standing just inside the hatch and gave Sheehan a sheepish look before stepping forward to separate the two. Arguments had become common and unless they became physical, the ships NCOs were inclined to let people blow off steam.

There was the old cliché that the wait before battle was the worst bit. Having seen actual combat, a month ago Sheehan would have called that bullshit. But now, after landing on Phobos and weeks of listening to the radio signals of those doing the actual fighting, he was starting to reconsider. Several times they’d observed the Nameless fleet approach Earth and the Fast Division had stood ready to take off. But each time, the Admiral decided the position wasn’t good enough. Either there weren’t enough Nameless ships, or they weren’t deep enough into Earth’s mass shadow. Each time the crew had to stand down, it got harder.

Stepping onto the bridge, he immediately sensed the tension. The officer in charge sat rigidly in the command chair, while around him and seated at their posts, the duty watch were all as still as statues. Off to one side, at the communications section, Sheehan found Lewis. He had an earpiece on and was sitting, one elbow rested on the console, his chin on his hand, staring into the middle distance.

“Sir, the supply report for the Fast Division,” Sheehan said, handing over the computer pad. The information could have been sent directly to the Admiral’s terminal, but there were some things that required the personal touch.

Lewis took off his earpiece and cast his eyes over the report. There was nothing especially new or interesting, just a list of fuel reserves, maintenance levels and crew conditions. The daily report had barely altered in weeks, aside from the inevitable downward creep of their fuel supplies. As Lewis read, Sheehan could hear whispering voices from the earpiece.

“
Illustrious
was intercepted,” Lewis said without looking up.

“Sir?”

“The
Illustrious
– she got jumped by an enemy cruiser squadron within the orbit of Saturn. The transmissions reached us about an hour ago.”

His tone was so even he could have been commenting on the weather, but Sheehan felt his blood freeze. His niece was stationed on the carrier.

“Survivors, sir?” he asked after swallowing hard.