Destroyer (Expansion Wars Trilogy, Book 3) Read online

  "The first Prowler on the scene was able to confirm that the station had been hit with multiple strikes from a Darshik plasma lance. This probably happened to cover the fact that the station had been boarded. They were able to fire off their emergency com drone that had copies of all the logs and research, so CIS was able to confirm that a Darshik ship had snuck up on the facility and grappled onto one of the cargo airlocks."

  The imagery shifted to the high-resolution shots taken by the station's cameras of a ship latched onto one of the docking outriggers. There could be no mistaking the ship's origin.

  "As you can likely tell, it is indeed our elusive ace that we tangled with in the Juwel System, and he's made some upgrades since then. I’m including the location of Feynman along with a more detailed analysis of what they did there. You didn't hear this from me … but we've learned that the gravimetric subluminal drive that ship is using was likely adapted from the RDS pod the Icarus had to jettison in Darshik space. Who knows what they could have gotten their hands on if the outpost workers weren't able to purge the computers and destroy their research in time.

  "One other note of interest: The newly retired Fleet Admiral Joseph Marcum's daughter, Ella Marcum, was a researcher aboard the station. She's also one of thirty-five people who are still officially listed as missing in action since their bodies were never recovered … not even when the residuals were tested for DNA after the initial fight near the airlock.

  "The very existence of this station is a highly guarded secret, but I feel like you need the information sooner than later considering what's in the orders Celesta just sent you. Good luck, Captain. Pike out."

  "Damn," Jackson whispered as he flicked through the pictures of the gutted research station. It wasn't pretty and it looked like the Darshik raiders knew exactly what they were after. A path of destruction could be drawn from the docking arm all the way down to the main research areas. The bridge and crew quarters were largely left alone until the enemy ship speared the structure with those damned plasma lances.

  Forcing himself to set aside the horrific imagery of the station, he opened up the official copy of the Nemesis's orders and verified their receipt. He then authorized the com section to transmit the “receive acknowledgement” to the com drone that was circling back around the system, waiting for their reply so it could transition back to the nearest platform in the Arcadia System. The newer drones were capable of much more than pre-programmed point-to-point flights between platforms and could be dispatched from ships or to uninhabited systems to relay com traffic.

  Their orders were short and to the point: The TFS Nemesis, Captain Jackson Wolfe commanding, was tasked with locating and destroying the Darshik warship known by CENTCOM codename Specter. Captain Wolfe was authorized to use any and all means at his disposal to accomplish the mission up to and including commandeering local Fleet assets when necessary during the pursuit. The Nemesis had nine months to complete her mission.

  The last line of his orders was the one he was waiting for: As of receipt of transmission, the TFS Nemesis is fully activated and considered a man of war in the United Terran Federation Starfleet and shall operate within the boundaries of the United Terran Armed Forces charter.

  "Time to go hunting," Jackson said with a grim smile. Even during the Phage war he'd never felt a hatred for an enemy like he did for this Specter. Now, with a destroyer under him, he was ready to exact some long overdue payback.

  3

  "Let's make this quick!" Jackson said as he walked into the command deck wardroom, silencing all of the extraneous conversation. All of his senior staff and department heads were already seated and waiting for him.

  "As of 1145 ship's time, the Nemesis is fully activated and we've been given our first mission. You all know what that tasking is, so we'll not belabor that now … all mission details will be disseminated through the normal channels once we're underway. When you're called, I want a simple go, no-go, and then we're heading for the first jump point.

  "Engineering?"

  "Go."

  "Operations?"

  "Go."

  "Tactical?"

  "Go."

  "Navcom?"

  "Go."

  "Crew Support Systems?"

  "Go."

  "Marine Detachment?"

  "Go, sir."

  "And, finally, XO?"

  "The Nemesis and her crew are ready, Captain," Chambliss said.

  "Okay, then. We're steaming for the Columbiana jump point with the ultimate destination of the Cassandra System," Jackson said. "It's an uninhabited system with the only thing of interest being the former Feynman Research Outpost, now a derelict hulk thanks to our Darshik friend.

  "It's not likely we'll intercept it anywhere near there at this point, but it's a place to start and it's a short flight. All concerns and questions at this point need to be routed through OPS or the XO, but I'd ask you to hold off until you get your specific mission briefs. Any immediately pressing issues?"

  Nobody raised a hand or spoke up. His crew was made up of seasoned combat veterans, so if he had to say what the mood of the room was it would have to be bored, although there were a few eager smiles among the group.

  "First watch will report to the bridge immediately," he said. "I want to be under power and heading to the jump point within the next ninety minutes. Dismissed."

  "With all due respect, might I ask why we're heading to the Cassandra System, Captain?" Chambliss asked once everyone had filed out. "From what I can tell from the brief you sent me, the Darshik have already hit it … we're not really equipped for the type of forensic investigation that could give us a next destination."

  "First off, never hesitate to question me about an order I've given you're not clear on, Commander," Jackson said. "I do applaud your choice of timing and discretion, however. As this isn't an emergency, it's best that the crew doesn't see us potentially disagreeing on a course of action.

  "You're absolutely correct; I don't expect that we'll find anything there since the Nemesis isn't equipped for that sort of work, and it's unlikely that the Specter will still be sticking around. However, there's an off chance it could be … its motivations are largely a mystery and it might have intentionally attacked a remote station with the hopes of drawing more Terran ships out into the open. But the main reason is that instead of waiting for a com drone we'll be right there within radio range if the CIS teams that are qualified to investigate the scene find anything. We'll be able to act on it immediately rather than wait weeks for a drone to come into the DeLonges or Columbiana systems."

  "Very good, sir," Chambliss said, nodding thoughtfully. "And being underway keeps the crew active and alert."

  "Also true." Jackson patted his XO on the shoulder while simultaneously steering him towards the hatchway. Getting a new Executive Officer was always a strange dance, but at least this time Jackson was familiar with Chambliss and respected him. His last XO, Commander Simmons, had remained aboard the Aludra Star to help bring Captain Barrett up to speed and maintain continuity aboard that ship. That was the hell of the way Fleet handled personnel: Just about the time a captain and executive officer had gelled as a team and were kicking ass, Fleet Operations would split them up to spread around the experienced officers. He was always guarded during the first few missions with a new one, but he had high hopes for Jasper Chambliss.

  By the time Jackson strode onto the bridge, his Marine escort taking position just inside the hatchway while two more stood outside as sentries, first watch was in their seats and the air hummed with activity.

  "Nav!"

  "Course and velocity plotted for the Columbiana jump point, sir," a chief with salt and pepper hair sitting at the nav station answered.

  "Helm!"

  "New course entered and ready, Captain," the helmsman said. "Main engines are ready. Engineering has cleared the Nemesis for maneuvering."

  "Very well," Jackson said. "Proceed onto new course, all ahead one-half."

  "A
head one-half, aye!"

  The Nemesis was the first ship to enter active service with an integrated reactionless drive system. All the gravimetric field generators were buried within the main hull of the starship and she didn't carry the normal, massive magneto plasma drive pods like other ships in the fleet. Instead, smaller, less powerful plasma engines were fitted to extendable pylons in case of emergencies. After four months’ training on the TFS Endurance, the Nemesis's sister ship, and then another two breaking in his own ship, Jackson had become comfortable with the system.

  Some of the older spacers weren't thrilled with the new drive and claimed it would leave them stranded, but after pushing two identical ships to their limits over the six months of testing, Jackson had every confidence that Starfleet had provided him a reliable ship. It also seemed that some of his complaints about the Starwolf-class ships had been taken seriously as the Nemesis's armor was significantly beefed up, close to four meters of alloy over critical areas, and all of it was removable off the inner hull in segments for replacement.

  His first ship, the Raptor-class destroyer, Blue Jacket, had been made of three-meter-thick alloy, but the hull had been one monolithic piece with openings cut into it for hatches and access points. While incredibly strong, it also meant that if the hull was compromised there was no practical way to repair it. From what he could see of the Nemesis's design, the engineers had made her able to take a hard hit and survive as well as able to be repaired and go right back at it.

  "OPS, is that com drone still in the system?" Jackson asked.

  "Yes, sir," the lieutenant at the OPS stations reported. "It's making its final course correction before heading for the DeLonges jump point."

  "Send one more message addressed to Seventh Fleet Operations letting them know we're underway and on mission," Jackson said. "Put nothing in there regarding course or destination."

  "Aye aye, sir," she said. Her name was Ayko Hori and, like him, she was from Earth. Her obvious Japanese ancestry made people assume she was from one of the two planets within New America that the bulk of Japanese colonists had flocked to centuries ago, and it was something she bristled at each time it was casually mentioned. Unlike Jackson, who had always downplayed his heritage, Ayko was defiantly proud of being from Earth.

  She was also strikingly beautiful, something that caused him some concern as he saw his tactical officer continually stealing glances at her. Jackson knew that Accari was a consummate professional … but he also had a certain reputation among the female officers. While there was no actual Fleet regulation concerning relationships among crewmates, some captains imposed "hands-off" policies to varying degrees, mostly among bridge crews that would serve on the same watch together. The last thing a CO wanted was a lovers’ quarrel disrupting the operations of their ship. Jackson had yet to implement anything like that himself because it had never been a problem, but he made a mental note to have Commander Chambliss keep an eye on it. He felt he was too close to Accari personally to be objective and it was the XO's job anyway.

  The Nemesis swung smoothly onto her new course and surged ahead; the only way the crew could tell she was accelerating was by watching their instruments. Jackson was among the captains that would sorely miss the old plasma thrust engines, but he couldn't argue with progress when it put a weapon like the Nemesis into his hands to hunt that alien bastard down.

  "Nemesis is at transition plus ten," the helmsman called out as the destroyer shot past and settled down at ten percent over her transition velocity. It was the velocity buffer Jackson had decreed to be their standard for normal warp transitions.

  "OPS, deploy the warp drive and charge transition capacitors," Jackson ordered. "How long until we hit the jump point?"

  "Seventy-eight hours, sir," Nav said.

  "Coms, tell Engineering I want a full diagnostic done on the warp drive before we get there," Jackson said. "They're clear to take the RDS offline as they need to when it's time to test the field emitters."

  "Aye, sir."

  "OPS, set us back to normal watch schedule and let second watch know that they're going to be coming back on duty shortly." Jackson stood up. "XO, you have the bridge."

  "I have the bridge, aye," Chambliss said and stood as well while Jackson walked off the bridge.

  "So the hunt begins, eh Captain?" Barton said as he fell in behind Jackson.

  "That it does, Sergeant," Jackson said with a tight smile.

  "Admiral, come in."

  "You asked to see me, sir?" Celesta said, walking into the expansive office with a large, curved window that looked down onto New Sierra.

  "Have a seat." Fleet Admiral Pitt gestured to a large chair in the small lounge area. "Can I get you something to drink? It's after 1800 station time so I'm having a snort. Bourbon okay? It's not the stuff Wolfe gets, but it's not bad."

  "That'll be fine, Admiral," Celesta said. Once Pitt had poured them both a drink and sat across from her, she decided to cut to the chase. "Can I assume this afterhours meeting and expensive liquor is because you're about to tell me something I don't want to hear?"

  "Direct." Pitt nodded in approval. "Admirable, but you'll need to temper that if you expect to navigate these political waters as a flag officer."

  "I have no—"

  "Spare me." Pitt waved her off. "You took the promotion because you're as ambitious now as you were when that idiot Winters put you on Jackson Wolfe's bridge. You're likely already picking out the new furniture for this office." Celesta said nothing as she had to concede that Pitt made a valid point. He'd just been promoted to CENTCOM Chief of Fleet Operations and answered directly to the Chief of Staff and the President himself.

  "And while you still have that rebellious spark all Black Fleet destroyer captains have … we have a problem to discuss, and it can't be something that ever leaves this office or we'll both burn for it."

  "Oh, shit," Celesta said wearily. "What now?"

  "Have you met the new President yet?"

  "No," Celesta said, now dreading where the conversation was going. She knew President Nelson by reputation only, but what she knew made her leery of how he would perform as a Commander in Chief.

  "I just came back up from the surface," Pitt said, leaning back and rubbing his temple. "It was an exhausting day of briefings trying to get the new CIC spun up and aware of all Fleet operations. He became particularly concerned by what he called an overly aggressive misstep by Black Fleet in initiating a seek-and-destroy mission on a single Darshik ship."

  "You mean the Nemesis's mission to eliminate the specialized Darshik cruiser that's taken out nearly half a dozen Terran starships single-handedly?"

  "Yes," Pitt said. "President Nelson feels that a more diplomatic approach might be in order considering that we now know we're dealing with an ideological offshoot of Ushin society. He thinks that we should be offering limited support with the goal of allowing them to sort it all out themselves and thus keeping the Federation out of either side."

  "That's … naïve," Celesta said, groping for a polite word given they were discussing the current sitting President. "The Ushin have already shown that they're incapable of dealing with the problem themselves. I can understand not wanting to get the Federation involved in what is essentially an internal Ushin matter, but we're already well past that. The Darshik know where we are and we've already engaged them in battle."

  "Agreed, but he was adamant that we limit combat operations to the direct defense of Terran-held systems and concentrate specifically on those with populated worlds," Pitt said.

  "This still works," Celesta said with a shrug. "Wolfe's mission could be seen as—"

  "Our new President isn't that naïve," Pitt interrupted again. "He specifically wants the Nemesis to stand down … his words. He feels like the risk is minimal to ignore the problem of a single ship for the time being while the Ushin work to resolve issues with the Darshik. Once that happens, the problem of the Specter takes care of itself."

  "And what is it th
at you think?" Celesta asked after a long, uncomfortable moment. "We don't even know what the Darshik's leadership structure is, but I have to think that even if a diplomatic resolution between the two were achieved, this Specter would simply go rogue."

  "I think you're well aware of my opinion on this type of appeasement strategy," Pitt said. "But what we think is irrelevant. The new CIC has given us a direction he expects to be implemented. Since all Black Fleet orders originate from your office, I thought you should at least get a heads up before I have to officially order you to stand down the Nemesis mission."

  "So that's really the only reason I'm sitting here?"

  "Tell me something, Celesta … how do you think Jackson Wolfe will react to being told to abort his hunt and bring his ship back to port?" Pitt asked with a perfectly straight face.

  "I think we understand each other, Admiral," Celesta said.

  "I'm sure I have no idea what you mean, Admiral Wright," Pitt said.

  4

  "Transition complete."

  "Position confirmed, sir. We've arrived in the Cassandra System just under thirty-eight thousand kilometers off our targeted jump point."

  "OPS, let Engineering know I'd like to tighten that up significantly by our next warp flight," Jackson said. "Coms?"

  "Fleet beacons coming through loud and clear, Captain," Lieutenant Demaryius Makers reported from the com station. "Three CIS Prowlers, a com carrier, two frigates from Fleet Research and Science, and six contacts that aren't specified by class."

  "Very good." Jackson slipped his restraints off and stood up. "OPS, stand down collision alert and activate our own beacon. Let's not have any misunderstandings between us and any tactical assets that may be lurking in this system."

  "Aye aye, sir."

  The new warp drive that had been fitted to the Valkyrie-class starships used the latest and greatest in gravimetric field generators, and the emitters didn't need to be extended out away from the ship in order to form the fore and aft distortion rings. The system was much more efficient and provided a higher stable warp factor than the previous generations of FTL drives, but the tradeoff was that transitions back to normal space could sometimes be a bit on the bumpy side.