The Last Charge (The Nameless War Trilogy Book 3) (15 page)

“Bloody hell!” Willis exclaimed. She hadn’t realized she’d been holding her breath.
Minstrel
continued to fire methodically as the Nameless threw three more big salvos at them, all with an equal lack of results.

There were further exclamations across the command channel. As the Nameless fire spluttered out, there were cheers on the bridge.

“Can we go off duty now, Skipper?” the gunner asked. “I think
Minstrel
has got this.”

Willis let the crew enjoy the moment for a few minutes before re-establishing command.

“Okay folks, let’s calm it down. It’s not as if these bastards have ever had problems with adapting,” she ordered.

Still,
Minstrel
’s performance had clearly taken the wind out of the sails of the intercepting Nameless. Pulling up the communication display on her screen, she could see FTL transmissions going back and forth from the intercepting squadron and the rest of the Nameless fleet. As they discussed, the convoy was getting further and further into Saturn’s mass shadow, while behind them fighters from the two carriers were jumping in. The window of opportunity for the Nameless was closing.

___________________________

“So they made it in?” Captain Holfe,
Warspite
’s Commanding Officer, asked.

“So it would appear,” Lewis replied as he drummed his fingers on the edge of the main holo.

The entire plan was high risk, but to have put the austerity cruisers into the role instead of more capable vessels struck him as tactical stinginess. If this was the last big throw, then there was no point holding back. Frustratingly, the relative positions of Mars and Saturn meant the Fast Division couldn’t really see the convoy directly and were instead relying on radio transmissions.

“The problem is,” said Sheehan, “they had to play their best card to get that far.
Minstrel
blew off the guts of eighty percent of her ammunition before they reached the outer perimeter.”

“But they can reload?” Holfe asked. “They brought ammunition ships with them.”

“Yes, but
Minstrel
will need several hours of downtime to do that, so no use in combat.”

“Yes,
Minstrel
has some glaring flaws and I don’t doubt the Nameless will be working them out,” Lewis said thoughtfully, “But their principal focus will be on the fact that by the time the convoy crossed the perimeter, a single ship held off – what, fifty of theirs?”

“Roughly that,” Sheehan agreed.

“So the Nameless now know they’ll have to throw in a significant number of ships to overwhelm the convoy defenders,” Lewis continued in the same thoughtful tone. “That’s most, if not all, of their ships.”

“Getting out of Saturn won’t be as easy as getting in. And I don’t know if they can do it,” Sheehan said in a tone of grim finality.

“We could assist,” Holfe suggested. “Make Saturn the point we engage.”

“I think that’s throwing good after bad,” Sheehan replied, crossing his arms. Both of them turned to Lewis. He stared into the holo, lost in thought.

“No,” he said eventually. “We will not engage at Saturn. We would likely maul a squadron or two, but even under the most favourable conditions we couldn’t destroy or pin down a fleet. No, this is someone else’s script and we will, if given the chance, play the part laid down for us.”

“What if the convoy doesn’t make it?” Holfe asked. “We’ve got only a few more days of fuel.”

Lewis sighed and turned to face them.

“We take off and make for Saturn, Captain.” He smiled bitterly. “Unlike our colleagues around Earth, we will at least then be able to make our last stand with charged weapons.”

___________________________

The pipes pulsed in unison as hydrogen fuel pumped into the tanker Dos Amigos. Lifeblood, Willis thought to herself as she peered through the large viewing port. Beyond, Saturn dominated the view. A fuel skimmer slowly made its way down towards the planet. Although Saturn had been cut off, the fuel industry had continued to work gathering hydrogen. With only skeleton crews on any single facility, the pace had been slow, but with no fuel leaving for Earth or anywhere else, it had been enough to fill every one of the storage tanks orbiting the planet.
Black Prince
was docked on the other side of the station, filling her own tanks and Willis had taken the opportunity to stretch her legs under the excuse of paying her respects to the facility supervisor.

“Won’t be long now, Captain,” said a passing civilian worker.

“Pardon?”

“Another day to fill the tanks and you’ll be ready,” the man said cheerfully.

He was dressed in standard work overalls, but the flashes on his shoulders indicated he was a junior supervisor. His round face gave him the look of a man permanently enjoying a joke.

“I’m telling you, those bug-eyed bastards must have been raging, watching you guys waltz through with barely a pause. They know they’re bollixed now.”

Willis smiled blandly.

“Well, better be getting on. Don’t want to be the dickhead that causes a delay. Thanks again,” he added before bustling off. Willis kept her fixed smiled until he pulled himself round a corner and disappeared from view.

“Ignorance is bliss,” she muttered to herself.

“Not to be awkward, but when you decided to come here, you did have a plan to get back out again?” asked Colonel Bunton.

As the most senior officer present the American was currently in command of the various orbital defences under the umbrella of Planetary Defence. He’d called the meeting on the
Starfort
Cold Harbour
to confirm the defender’s role in the breakout.

“We’re playing this one a little bit more by ear than anyone is really happy with,” Dandolo said. “If we’d got in clean, then we’d have had the option to simply make a straight run for the Red Line. Given that the Nameless have seen
Minstrel
strut her stuff, that’s now off the table.”

“I still don’t get why
Fortitude
and her cruisers didn’t stay with you,” Bunton replied. “I mean the firepower they could bring to bear…”

“The Nameless could bring more,” Dandolo cut him off. “But now that she’s outside any mass shadow, she’s harder to predict or monitor and far too powerful to ignore. She might be our smallest battleship but if she jumps in on top of them she could still make a mess.”

“Well don’t get me wrong, I can understand why Earth didn’t want to transmit the entire plan ahead of time, but we’ve got to the point where I need to know what you’re doing so I can organise our support. Y’know there are only so many ways out of Saturn to make a direct run at Earth,” Bunton said.

“Happily we won’t be heading direct to Earth,” Willis replied. When Bunton gave her a questioning look she continued. “We’ll head out past the Heliopause. Give
Minstrel
– and the rest of us – a chance to rearm and link up with
Fortitude
, before we make our run to Earth.

Bunton looked thoughtful for a moment then shrugged. “That’s all well and good but getting out of Saturn’s mass shadow will take those tankers at least fifteen hours.”

“It’s the last five that actually count,” Willis said. “That’s the point at which they can jump in around us, but we can’t jump out. So that’s why we won’t fly in a straight line.”

“The Nameless will see us make our move hours before we reach a position they can fire on.” Dandolo turned and looked out into
Cold Harbour
’s control centre. On the main holo a dozen red blips were visible, scouts now forming a tight picket around the planet.

“The carriers will start pegging at those bastards in a few hours,” he continued, “which will keep them jumping – literally as well as metaphorically. With gaps in their coverage, their fleet will have to be ready to move for an extended period. When we make our move the Home Fleet will move closer to the Earth Red Line. That will mean they have to be careful about getting in too deep, especially as the coms ship we brought with us isn’t coming back. It will stay here and keep a running commentary on where any Nameless units are.”

“We’ll spiral out from Saturn,” Willis said. That had been her idea. “Since we stay on the inside of the turn it will be hard for them to stay level for any great length of time. We’ll re-launch our torpedoes before contact and put them on station so that they’ll screen ahead and behind us. That combined with your fighters and
Minstrel
will make a close range jump in wildly dangerous. Basically we’re going do our level best to turn this into a marathon rather than a sprint.
Minstrel
has problems with ammunition but the same is true of them. There are only so many missiles you can shoehorn onto any ship. We’ll make our final break past the moon of Tethys.”

“Hopefully, they won’t expect that because in its current position Saturn is between Tethys and Earth,” Ozo said.

“And the European fortresses at the poles can give covering fire,” observed Bunton.

“That too,” Dandolo agreed.

“There is one thing I’ve been wondering about,” Valance said. “It didn’t come up in the planning, but so far I’ve been rearming from just the
Remarque
. I’ll pretty much empty her, but I wonder whether we should balance the load across the two ammunition ships, just in case one...” he trailed off.

Neither the captains of the ammunition ship or the tankers were present as observers at the meeting. All were Battle Fleet officers ,but in the support units rather than combat wings.

“No,” said Willis before Dandolo could reply. “The empty ship can be kept on the engaged side of the convoy as we move out, to protect the other.” She glanced at the captain of the
Remarque
. His eyes had widened, and he looked to Dandolo. The Commodore didn’t meet his gaze. Up to this point the ammunition ships along with the coms ship had been the critical ones to get through to Saturn so they’d been positioned at the heart of the formation.

“Yes. We’ll do that. The empty ammunition ship will join the two general transports. They will form an outer column on the threatened side of the convoy. The remaining ammunition ship will stay in the central position.”

Willis saw the face of the officer drop. He should have expected this, but equally they should have spelt it out beforehand. The general transports were civilian ships crewed by Battle Fleet personnel for this mission. But as vessels never intended to be put directly into harm’s way, the ammunition ships had their usual crews. The man should have had time to prepare himself, but instead he’d been allowed to think his part was done.

Their eyes met and she saw a man who knew he’d likely been handed a death sentence.

“Well,” Bunton said after an uncomfortable moment, “I can assure you Planetary Defence will not let you down. Although I still think you should aim to get to Earth as fast as possible. I know your barrage ship will likely be empty if… when, you reach the Red Line, so likely will the Nameless. Heading out past the Heliopause to rearm sounds more beneficial to them than us.”

“Headquarters thinks otherwise,” Dandolo replied blandly.

“Okay. Both my fellow American officers and those of the Chinese installations have contacted me. They are proposing dinner before you leave.”

“Thank you,” Dandolo replied, “we’ll be there.”

As they left
Cold Harbour
, Ozo murmured in Willis’s ear.

“The dinner offer would be nicer if you weren’t left with the feeling the Americans think it would be rude not to give the condemned a last meal.”

16th February 2068
 

As the recorded words of Admiral Wingate echoed through
Black Prince
, Guinness looked around the engine room. They hadn’t depressurised yet, so no one had their helmet on and he could see their faces. Some looked shaken, other excited, most looked like they were still processing what they’d heard.

“You knew, Chief?” one of his deputies asked.

“Yes,” Guinness replied.

“Wow!” The young man pondered it for a moment then smiled. “Well if we’re going out, we’re going out epic!”

God bless the young
, Guinness thought to himself.

“Well, this will be painful,” Willis remarked as
Black Prince
accelerated at thirty percent of maximum. With the six tankers fully loaded this was the best sustainable speed for the slowest ship. The captain of that ship reckoned he could maybe get up to thirty five percent of
Black Prince
’s best, but not for more than an hour.

“On the positive side, at least the Chief won’t shout at me for damaging his engines.”

That at least got a smile on the bridge. Willis glanced again at the Holo. Knowing what was coming, the crew of each ship would be coping with the next few hours as best they could. They’d made all possible preparations. Every ship system had been checked and doubled checked. The medical dispenser of each crewmember’s survival suit had been stocked with the generally detested wake-up shots, but facing into an engagement that might last days, there was no choice. As they began a build-up that would test the nerves of even the strongest of them, as captain, she had to lead by example. At times like this, that amounted to looking like everything was under control.