The Last Charge (The Nameless War Trilogy Book 3) (21 page)

“Countermeasures, full spread!” she ordered.

As she spoke, the destroyer
Cheetah
took a direct hit from a cap ship missile. The entire ship disappeared in a flash, not even leaving wreckage behind.

“Helm, prepare for the turn over. We don’t want to go straight through!”

Ahead, the fighters were fully engaged, tearing into and through their enemies. Another destroyer,
Stingray
, took a heavy hit and tumbled out of control.

“Helm, now!” Berg snapped.
Mantis
flipped end over and braked hard as she matched velocity and heading with the Nameless inside their formation. Except there was now no formation – this was a melee of unimaginable scale, with each ship on its own.
Mantis
wove through, guns firing left and right, as Nameless ships attempted to escape their tormentors. The collision detector sounded urgently as an escort tried to swerve into them. Without waiting for an order, the helmsman lunged the destroyer downwards. As the escort skimmed past,
Mantis
’s point defence guns opened up, speckling the hull with punctures.  Ahead there was a sudden opening and through the chaos,
Mantis
’s computer identified the largest ship of the Nameless rearguard – their carrier. Its close escort stripped away and visibly floundering, it was a target any captain would dream of finding in their sights. A quick glance to the weapons board showed all four missile tubes were still loaded.

“Fire Control, target the carrier with missiles, all tubes!”

“Roger!”

The four missiles rippled from their launchers at a range of less than one hundred kilometres. As they struck the enemy carrier amidships, it burst like an overripe fruit.

___________________________

Lewis smiled coldly as the two rearguard formations smashed into one another and ceased to be a factor in the main fight. The main enemy fleet had hesitated when the carriers jumped in on top of their back up. Had the alien commander reached the limit? Certainly the average human mind could only cope with so many shocks in quick succession before it became dysfunctional. The ground-based fighter squadrons of Planetary Defence that had been held back were now joining the fight. The Nameless fighters, inferior one on one, had their numerical advantage stripped away and were now being massacred. Squadrons of human fighters, unable to find their opposite numbers to attack, now threw themselves at the fleeing Nameless ships. Strafing runs couldn’t kill a starship but they could hamstring one, with the result that the Nameless fleet formation had started to break up as the lame were abandoned by the swifter. Whatever the Nameless were, they could feel panic and it was starting to show.

“Signal the squadron to come to heading two seven zero dash zero, zero, zero,” Lewis calmly ordered. “We’ll hold at this distance and let them come to us. They may get us yet, but by the time they do, we’ll have bled them white first.”

“Not just us, sir,” Sheehan said, as he nodded towards a new piece of information being flagged on the display.

Bringing up the rear but armed with the biggest guns, the battleships of the Home Fleet had just reached firing range.

___________________________

With its port side engine pod riddled by gunfire, the escort was locked in a slow turn as
D for Dubious
shot under it, her wingman hard on her heels. Alanna dragged her fighter’s nose around to reverse its heading. One the escort’s missile silos popped open as it sought swat its tormentor, just like she’d wanted it to. Alanna pressed down hard on the firing stud and three lines of gunfire stitched their way across the hull and into the silo. The missile inside blew, gouging a massive crater in the small ship. The remaining engine spluttered and failed as the escort tumbled away.

“Another one bites the dust,” Schurenhofer crowed as Alanna flipped
Dubious
back over.

“What have we got ammunition wise?” she asked.

“Less than two hundred rounds on each gun,” Schurenhofer replied. “But we’re running out of targets just as fast.”

She was right. Most of the Nameless rearguard was either destroyed, attempting to slow to jump or running in real space. Most but not all; looking as her display she could see three contacts closing on
Dauntless
.

“All
Dauntless
fighters, close in and protect mother,” she ordered.

Less than fifty kilometres ahead of
Dubious
,
Dauntless
lumbered around like an elderly maiden aunt persuaded to dance a jig, her flak guns and point defence blazing away in all directions. A Nameless escort swung in and put two dual-purpose missiles into the carrier, blowing apart the hangars on one side.
Dauntless
staggered, then her flak turrets came to bear and she took savage revenge on her opponent. Closing from half a dozen directions, the carrier’s children swarmed and pecked apart the other two escorts. The last of them detonated as
Dubious
’s magazines ran dry. Looking around Alanna realised her battle was over. There was no one left to fight.

___________________________

Perhaps a hundred Nameless ships still remained combat worthy. Their formation was ragged but still there. Then suddenly they broke off in countless different directions as every ship went its’ own way, each desperately seeking salvation. Crowe felt his jaw drop.

“My God,” said Colwell, “they’re routing.”

It was every ship for itself.

“Sir, signal from
Warspite
: break formation, engage at will.”

The battle from there became nothing more than snap shots for Crowe, as the Fast Division raced in like foxes let loose in a hen house. He saw the cruisers
Churchill
and
De Gaulle
get in on either side of the last Nameless carrier and riddle it from stem to stern.
Warspite
plunged into the centre of the expanding cloud of ships and stabbed out with her guns, claiming victims with virtually every shot. With so many targets to pursue in so many directions, some Nameless ships finally managed to slow down enough to jump out and disappear. But only small ships and a few cruisers managed to escape in this way. No enemy cap ships or carriers got clear.

They had won.

Chapter Nine

Breathing Space

28th February 2068 

It was one in the morning and the White House state dinner was still going strong. In fact, one week after the last Nameless ship had fled its solar system; planet Earth was still one big party. It wasn’t quite the biggest Earth had ever seen – that had been at the end of the Contact War. Lewis hadn’t been on planet for the start of that, but it had still been going seven weeks later when he and
Onslaught
finally made it home.

“This way sir,” said the White House aide who’d rescued Lewis from a dull conversation with two congressmen.

With a battle that should have been lost instead won, this was now the time for the men and women of power to show that they had made the hard choices and backed the winning horse. State dinners and the like were being held in all the major capitals of the world for the heroes of the hour to be lauded and politicians to claim their share of the credit. Like a military operation, the fleet had deployed its senior officers to all possible points of contact – even the one officer with a notorious lack of tolerance for the political classes.

The aide paused to tap on the door and then led the Admiral into the Oval Office.

President Clifton was standing with her back to the famous desk staring out the window.

“Admiral, I do apologise for dragging you away from the party,”
Clifton said as she turned around. “Please sit.”

“Thank you,” Lewis replied as he seated himself.

“It’s unusual for the fleet to ask to speak outside of normal channels. With all respect, Admiral, it’s even stranger that you should be the one to be sent here.”

“There’s barely a national capital that hasn’t already hosted at least one of the fleet’s senior officers for the celebrations, Madam President. Admiral Wingate believes it’s an opportunity that can’t be squandered.”

“And he believes in going straight to the top in each case?”

“Yes. Time is pressing and it avoids the political hangers-on who want to be seen, but get in the way and contribute nothing useful to the discussions,” Lewis replied bluntly.

Clifton smiled slightly.

“A cruel dismissal of Congress, Admiral” she said, “but please continue.”

“We haven’t won, Madam President,” Lewis said flatly as he gestured upwards towards the stars. “This ‘victory’ was the best case scenario. We caused them major casualties with only light losses in return, yet it has bought us only a breathing space.”

“That’s a very harsh assessment of events, particularly one in which you played such an important part bringing to a successful conclusion,”
Clifton replied.

“It is harsh because too many people are talking this up as more than it really is. I have read the media reports and ‘expert analysis.’ Too many people are choosing to live in a fantasy world where we’ve just won the war,” Lewis said shaking his head. “In the real world we’ve only avoided losing it.”

“Most people Admiral, would at least enjoy the moment.” Clifton observed.

“And were this war over, you can be sure I would be running around whooping with the best of them. But we are not there.”

“Alright Admiral, say what you have come here to say.”

“We wish to talk about the future and what our next step should be,” Lewis replied. “What our efforts have bought us, is a momentary advantage. The Nameless fleet has been severely weakened relative to our own…”

“By the count of my own analysts, so far Battle Fleet has destroyed the equivalent of its own tonnage and that of its own manpower. How the hell can any intelligent race sustain such loss?”

“Economic strength. Immense economic strength,” Lewis said. “In many respects the Nameless are in a similar position to this country more than a century ago, during the wars of the early twentieth century. It had an economy both immensely powerful and safely out of harm’s way. Opponents could not directly threaten the
United States homeland and instead had to hope to break the will of the American people by defeating their armies in the field. This is where the Nameless diverge from you. Before it was overrun, the reports we got from Douglas base on Landfall, indicated they used biological constructs as infantry. I suspect the crews of those ships are something similar, which is why they take such a casual attitude to losses.”

“I expected you to tell me that I shouldn’t expect an understandable rationale from an alien race.”

“No matter what way they perceive the universe, they are subject to practical realities. They can fight a war only with the resources available to them. This is where our problem lies. Given time, the Nameless will make good their losses and they will do it quicker than we can ours. Unless we can end this war within the next twelve to eighteen months, then two to five years from now, they will be back and they won’t make the same mistake twice.”

Clifton
’s expression became graver.

“Then you don’t believe Admiral, that their resolve will crumble, after losing so much?” she asked.

“No, I do not. To a certain extent, warships are built to be placed in danger and even lost if required. We have destroyed nothing they cannot replace.”

“So what does the fleet propose?”

“Our problem has always been that while we’ve been able to fight their fleets in the field, we have not been in a position to strike at their home worlds or core worlds. In contrast as we have experienced, they have been able to attack Earth. We have been vulnerable to a knockout blow but not in a position to land one in return. We need to identify and destroy targets that will once and for all remove their ability to wage war against us. This is the first time since the attack on Baden and the Third Fleet that we haven’t been under pressure. This is the first chance we’ve had had to seriously search for those targets.”

“I know fuel supplies from Saturn have started coming in again, but with everything shut down, it will be at least six months before Earth’s economic output can reach pre-siege levels,”
Clifton said.

“Yes, and even though damage to our forces was relatively light, ammunition expenditure was heavy. It will be months before we are ready to fight another fleet scale engagement,” Lewis replied. “But we aren’t looking for such a fight. Not yet. What we need to do now is to send several small squadrons out past the Junction Line, Landfall and even past the Centaur planet.”

“To find the Nameless.”

It wasn’t a question.

“To find where we can hurt them, Madam President.”

Clifton
stood and returned to the window. She looked up at the night sky and pointed.

“There they are – the transports we sent to the Aèllr. We handed those people to a race we fought thirty years ago and here they are, returned to us safely.”

“The Nameless are not the Aèllr; I say that as someone who has fought both of them,” Lewis replied coldly. “The Aèllr sought to contain us. The Nameless will eradicate us if they can.”

“You say that Admiral, but the reality is we know almost nothing about what they really are.”
Clifton turned sharply. “For Christ’s sake, we still don’t even know what they look like! What if there was a way to end this war without further bloodshed? What if we end up locked in a cycle of conflict because no one has the courage to reach out?”

Lewis made no immediate reply. Finally, he sighed.

“And what would we do if offered a ceasefire?” he asked, “Take it? Knowing that while negotiations were ongoing, the Nameless would be rebuilding their strength. That if or when those negotiations failed, the war would resume, with us in a weaker position than we had been. This is the second war I have fought in, Madam President. In the last war I survived virtual suicide missions. In this one, it has been my role to send others to their deaths. I don’t advocate military solutions because I believe them to be the easy route – I’ve been shot at too many times for that. The Nameless have given no indication that they have any desire for peace. Perhaps this defeat will have changed that – personally I doubt it – but right now I don’t believe we should even dare to pursue a diplomatic settlement, not when negotiating from a position of diminishing strength.”

Clifton
didn’t answer and Lewis waited patiently.

“Tell me Admiral, if your fleet orbited the Nameless home world, what would you do?”

“Whatever I judged necessary to preserve the human race, which if I was granted the authority by my civilian commanders, would include bombarding that world until the rubble bounced, or holding out the olive branch of peace.” Lewis said flatly. “But in my opinion, mercy is best offered from a position where it can not be mistaken for weakness.”

“I do wonder Admiral, what history will say of us.”

“History, Madam President, can judge me whatever way it likes, just as long as that history is written by a human.”

Clifton
smiled faintly.

“Admiral, this is the question that we keep coming back to. Can the fleet even achieve an outright victory? Can you win the war?”

“Do you gamble Madam President?”

Clifton
frowned at the question.

“No.”

“Believe me, Madam President. You and the rest of the human race are gamblers. We’ve had to go all-in twice just to stay in the war. If we are to win, then I can be certain of one thing. We will have to go all-in at least one more time.”