Destroyer (Expansion Wars Trilogy, Book 3) Page 17

  "Sir, the contacts were sporadic and—"

  "I'm well aware of that, Mr. Accari," Jackson cut off his young tactical officer. "Their very presence is proof the Darshik have left at least two of their ships behind to monitor this system, and we do not have an exact location on either. I want to take them out before they can retreat to the Epsilon System and report our presence. The chances are good if they're moving under power we've been spotted anyway."

  "Yes, sir."

  One attribute of the newest versions of the Terran RDS that was a closely guarded secret was that it was capable of detecting other RDS-powered ships from a surprisingly long distance. The field emitters were now so precise that the minute gravimetric fluctuations in local space created by another ship were detected and could now even be interpreted to provide detailed tracking data. In a lot of ways the system was much more accurate than traditional radar. The only caveat to the system was that if the enemy was using thrust drives it didn't work. CENTCOM knew that the ESA was scrambling to develop their own reactionless starship drives, so it was classified at the highest level that the Federation could nullify one of the system's main advantages: stealth. So far the capability only existed on the Valkyrie-class destroyers, Broadhead II class vessels, and the newest Prowlers entering service with the CIS.

  "Have the new encryption scheme been uploaded to our complement of Shrikes?" Jackson asked.

  "Yes, sir," Lieutenant Hori answered. "The munitions backshop made it a priority and updated all of our missiles before we transitioned in. They updated the Hornets we have aboard as well."

  "Tell Lieutenant Evers I said excellent work," Jackson said, referring to the munitions department head. "Tactical, deploy the mag-cannon turrets and charge the capacitor banks. I want deep penetrator H.E. shells in both loaders."

  "Penetrator high explosive shells in the mag-cannon loaders, aye," Accari said.

  After what had turned out to be a bitter fight with Tsuyo's ship designers, Starfleet had corrected what Jackson considered to be a glaring oversight with the Starwolf-class destroyers: The Nemesis had two independent, fully articulated 1500mm mag-cannon turrets with two barrels each. His previous destroyer, the Ares, had a single large-bore auto-mag that was hard-mounted to the hull. It had a higher rate of fire but the lighter shells it fired did less damage and having to aim the gun by changing the ship's attitude in flight was problematic.

  Many starship captains, even those with combat experience, didn't share Jackson's opinion that the magnetically fired ferrous shells were one of their best weapons for close-in battles between ships, but he maintained that the results spoke for themselves. Missiles could be shot down or fooled, lasers could be shielded against, but two metric tons of hardened alloy impacting a ship at over six thousand meters per second was devastating. The antiquated weapon had allowed a fifty-year-old destroyer to slug it out with a Phage Super Alpha. In the end he'd had to sacrifice the Blue Jacket to assure victory, but he stood by his claim regarding the effectiveness of ballistic weapons in space combat.

  "How are those tracks coming, Tactical?" Jackson asked as he watched the master readiness number, displayed as a percentage on the main display, climb as departments checked in as ready for battle.

  "Newest extrapolations by the computers put bogeys at one point five and five point three billion kilometers respectively," Accari said. "Closest ship is angling in toward us, further ship seems to be maintaining a parallel course. Tracks coming up on the main display now."

  Jackson could see that the closest ship did indeed appear to be coming onto an intercept course and the other ship seemed to not be reacting to their presence yet. The two ships were likely running silent and were not in communication with each other, so for now he had the advantage. The closing ship may have observed them crossing in front of enough stars to plot their course and speed, but given the enemy's low power output they likely assumed they were still undetected. If a Terran ship wasn't running active radar their normal tactic was to approach from the stern and pierce the ship with their plasma lance, and it looked like this ship was about to attempt that very maneuver.

  "Cube, are you seeing these tracks?" Jackson asked.

  "Yes, Captain Wolfe," the Cube's voice came over the intercom at a conversational volume. "I am running a real-time analysis on the incoming data and agree with your current posture; let the enemy ship come to you thinking they haven't been observed."

  Jackson smiled briefly at the Cube's correct assumption of his overall strategy to deal with the first ship. Commander Chambliss and Lieutenant Commander Hawkins had protested mightily when he'd told them he wanted the CIC to pipe the RDS sensor grid data to the Cube. They'd rightly argued that it was one of the most closely guarded secrets aboard the Nemesis. Jackson had trumped their protests by revealing the fact that the Cube had designed the system in the first place. It was one of the first really significant bits of practical engineering to come out of Project Prometheus.

  "Feel free to chime in if you have any additional insights or you see something we're missing," Jackson said, hoping he was being specific enough to avoid any accidental—or intentional—misunderstandings. The Cube tended towards either withholding information or barfing out an almost non-stop verbal stream that was distracting, to say the least. He'd worked with it during his time as project director to help it understand the differences in situations and which required less, or more, verbal input.

  "Understood, Captain," the Cube said.

  "Helm, cut engine output to one-quarter if you will," Jackson ordered.

  "Engines answering all ahead one-quarter, aye."

  They flew along the same course for another three hours, the mood on the bridge an odd mixture of eagerness and anxiety. Jackson would have preferred to cut the engines completely and drift cold but the RDS tracking system worked optimally when the drive was at least putting out twenty-five percent power and didn't work at all below ten percent. The Darshik cruiser was now angling over and appeared to definitely be working for a stern shot on the Nemesis. It had closed the gap to eight-hundred million kilometers and had increased speed by seventeen percent to catch them.

  "Tactical, it looks like he's lining up for a shot on our aft quadrant," Jackson said after the Darshik ship tightened its intercept angle even further. "I want to try to take this bogey out without bringing the active array online. Maybe we'll get lucky and the other ship will assume there was a fatal malfunction aboard."

  "We can snap-fire a Shrike and give it visual guidance instructions," Accari said doubtfully. "There are some risks with that since we'd have to give it extremely precise instructions as to what it's looking for, and there's a wide margin for error."

  "I can achieve this task with minimal effort, Lieutenant Commander Accari," the Cube spoke up. "I have detailed data on all known Darshik ship configurations and can provide the missile targeting package needed so the Shrike can visually acquire and track the target."

  "Get on it," Jackson said. "Send the package to Tactical when you're finished."

  "It's already—"

  "I have completed my task and provided the output to Lieutenant Commander Accari's station," the Cube cut Accari off. The tactical officer just turned and nodded to Jackson that he had indeed gotten the specialized instructions.

  The Shrike II missiles had their own active radars, the ability to be remotely guided via a telemetry stream from the launching ship, and they also had high-resolution multispectral imagers that allowed it stereoscopic vision. The system was supposed to be used in conjunction with the radar so that the missile could precisely target a specific point on an enemy ship, not just aim for a center mass shot. The missile also had a lot of flexibility in how it was programmed so without much effort they could tell it what to look for and launch it without it needing to transmit active radar. At close range, the optics would pierce the veil of space and pick out a fast-moving starship with ease. If it all went to plan, by the time they realized they had incoming fi
re it would be too late.

  Over the span of the next six hours the Darshik cruiser continued to accelerate and angle in behind them, soon getting close enough that the Nemesis's powerful optical sensors could be trained on it for a glimpse of what their pursuer looked like. The computers in CIC created a layered rendering from the multispectral data to give the crew their first blurry view of the ship pursuing them.

  "That fits the same profile as the ship that attacked us in the Juwel System and has been spotted throughout Terran space," Accari said. "At this range, we can't see the specific visual markers to determine if it's actually the same one."

  "Range?" Jackson asked.

  "Six hundred and fifty thousand kilometers and closing," Accari said.

  Jackson thought hard for a moment about how he wanted to fight this engagement. The most tempting way was to come about and slam the drive to full power, closing on the enemy ship and hitting them with a full laser cannon volley before it had time to charge and deploy its plasma lance. The biggest risk with that strategy was that the ship would have ample time to transmit a warning to the second ship. Jackson wasn't worried he couldn't get his ship reconfigured and ready to meet the new threat in time and prevail, he was worried the other ship was far enough out of range that it would be able to outrun him to the Epsilon jump point and warn the rest of its fleet they were coming.

  "New missile configuration," Jackson said, pulling up his terminal and quickly laying out a series of velocity equations. "I want one Shrike spit out of the tube and passively tracking; I just want it staying in the flight path of the incoming ship and set to detonate upon impact or proximity. Launch the second missile six seconds behind the first with instructions to fire its first stage the instant it detects the detonation of the first missile."

  "Firing programs updates, sir," Accari said.

  "Fire!"

  "Missile one away," Accari reported. "Missile two ready … missile two is away. Tubes eight and nine reloading."

  "Helm, increase engine power to one-half," Jackson ordered once the momentum from the launchers had pushed the missiles beyond their drive wake.

  "All ahead one-half, aye!"

  They'd already achieved quite a bit of relative velocity while at full power when they'd first gotten underway, but the RDS still provided a healthy jolt of acceleration when the power was bumped up. The icons for their two missiles quickly fell away as the Nemesis left them behind to coast.

  "Enemy ship is increasing velocity to maintain its closure rate," Lieutenant Hori reported. Jackson allowed himself a tight smile of anticipation. He had no doubt that the enemy ship was tracking them visually at this point. From the first timid steps towards them when the destroyer had crossed in front of the stars, blocking the light, to the more aggressive and confident charge now that they could be seen by advanced optics, it at least indicated the Darshik had no great advantage in sensor technology.

  The problem with visual tracking, especially while focused on a target in the distance, was that it was difficult to then catch something small by comparison. A Shrike missile, for example, was very small when compared to a Valkyrie-class destroyer, especially when it was sitting quiet and not burning its chemical main stage booster.

  Everyone on the bridge was silent as the icon for the enemy ship closed in on the icon representing their first missile. It took the enemy another two hours to reach the first, still accelerating like it had no idea what was in its path. For a time the two overlapped each other as the error factor of the computer's predicted position for each made it impossible to tell if the gambit had succeeded or if the missile had failed to stay in the cruiser's flightpath.

  "Detonation of first warhead!" Accari almost shouted, making many on the bridge jump. "Sensors washed out so I can't see if the second missile fired or not."

  "Enemy ship has ceased decelerating and is listing to port," Hori said. "No detected emissions from—"

  "Second missile has impacted," Accari cut her off. "We're getting secondary explosions through—disregard, enemy ship has been destroyed."

  There was a short cheer that went up through the bridge as the optical sensor feed on the main display showed the Darshik cruiser breaking apart.

  "Watch for any changes or transmissions from the second ship," Jackson said, calculating the lag in his head.

  "We're detecting a weak RF emission, Captain," Lieutenant Hori said. "CIC says the frequency and modulation is consistent with Darshik coms. Lieutenant Commander Hawkins believes we're picking up the leakage from a tight-beam radio."

  "Tactical?"

  "No change, sir," Accari said. "Bogey Two hasn't changed course or speed."

  "Let's not assume they bought that this was a catastrophic system malfunction," Jackson said. "Maintain emission security protocols and continue to observe the enemy for the next few hours. Helm, reduce engine power to one-quarter."

  "Engines to ahead one-quarter, aye."

  Jackson would not underestimate his opponents; he knew how ruthless and cunning they could be, and they'd proven to be superb shipmasters. His ruse might be convincing, but then again it might not. Given the report that Barrett had filed about his encounter in the Columbiana System earlier, Jackson assumed he was facing the same two now-outdated models that the Specter used to fly. Since Tango System was a known gateway into Darshik space, he also assumed they were loitering here as sentries and that there would be all sorts of nasty surprises waiting for him in the Epsilon System.

  He chided himself for thinking too far ahead. That's how people got careless and dead. He redoubled his focus on the remaining enemy ship and began to devise a strategy that would allow them to keep it from escaping to report on their presence.

  18

  "I have … tolerated … having one of my agents operating outside of our command structure since Augustus Wellington wrested you from my predecessor, but you've really stepped in a huge pile of shit this time," CIS Director Franco Sala said over his shoulder, his hands clasped behind his back and facing his floor-to-ceiling window overlooking New Sierra City.

  "Yes, sir," Pike said, not offering anything further.

  "That's all you have to say for yourself?" Sala asked, turning. "You left a dead ESA operative in a hotel where the most connected and powerful frequent and you did it in a way that leaves no doubt in Vice Chairman Tanaka's mind that someone knew of the meeting. The fact you stumbled across it by means I'm sure I don't want to know about is irrelevant. Tsuyo will now think there was an ongoing intelligence op aimed at them."

  "Isn't there, sir?" Pike asked innocently.

  "Shut up, Pike," Sala snarled. "I'm in no mood. I now have to go to the President and spin this in a way that makes it look like we're not incompetent buffoons."

  "I'm afraid I don't understand, sir," Pike said.

  Sala gave him a hard look, seemingly trying to determine if Pike—an agent trained at deception and espionage—was telling the truth.

  After the incident at the Royal Clipper, Pike had little choice but to trust his chain of command and report the incident. An ESA operative within the capital city was bad enough, but when they met with a high-level Tsuyo executive there could be serious implications. He'd made his report and then, before he could get back to his ship and get clear of New Sierra, he'd been apprehended by a CIS tactical team and told in no uncertain terms that he would be going to see the director … immediately.

  "I sometimes can't tell if you're a genius or the dumbest son of a bitch I've ever met."

  "Thank you, sir," Pike deadpanned.

  "As I'm sure you're unaware, Agent, I have been authorized by the President himself to use whatever means necessary to dig into the leaks within CENTCOM and the Federation government itself," Sala said, sitting down behind his desk. "After compiling and analyzing the data from the myriad of known incidents in which Federation secrets were compromised, we began to see a pattern.

  "While we can't prove anything yet, we've been looking closely at Tsuyo C
orporation's potential contact with the Eastern Star Alliance. You don't seem surprised."

  "Given what I just witnessed, sir, I've come to much the same conclusion," Pike said. "Having had a bit of time to process it while you were having me abducted, I have to say it fits."

  "How so?"

  "Tsuyo is essentially its own sovereign power in practice if not reality," Pike went on. "They're not ready to survive on their own, they need a strong host while they continue moving ahead with their own buildup of ships and acquisition of star systems. Given the recent attacks within Federation space and a few blunders by CENTCOM while executing the war with the Darshik, it's entirely plausible they don't think we're going to survive this conflict and have decided to make sure the ESA would welcome them with open arms should the worst happen."

  "You figured all of that out just now, did you?" Sala asked sarcastically. "In the ride over here?"

  "More or less, sir."

  "As it turns out, our analysts are in agreement with you," Sala said after rolling his eyes. "We're short on details, but all of the evidence points to Tsuyo Corporation actively shifting secrets to the ESA in anticipation of the Federation’s collapse. Imagine if we had a live ESA operative to question?

  "Anyway … the fact you found out that the man the President had just met with had a meeting almost directly afterwards with an enemy intelligence operative is a bit too much for pure coincidence. We will be going to brief President Nelson on this within the hour and then we'll decide what to do with you. You've bumbled into a very sensitive operation and hopefully haven't compromised it … at least you used a lethal method that makes it look like he had a stroke while on the can instead of beating him to death or shooting him. You still look presentable enough as Aston Lynch so don't bother asking if you can go clean up … you're not leaving this floor. Now get out."