Stand into Danger
D. J. Holmes
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Copyright © D. J. Holmes 2015
Table of Contents:
Chapter 1 – Welcome to the War
Chapter 2 – Intel
Chapter 3 – Misdirection
Chapter 4 – Confrontation
Chapter 5 – Reunion
Chapter 6 – Close the Enemy
Chapter 7 – An Old Acquaintance
The Void War Excerpt
Chapter 1 – Welcome to the War
3rd September 2439, edge of the Ouvea system.
The Royal Space Navy warship Achilles jumped out of shift space into the French system of Ouvea. On the bridge Captain Jonathan Somerville paced back and forth as he waited for his ship’s sensors to update the bridge’s main holo display. His ship was returning to Earth from the Indian colonial system of Aror.
Over the last hundred years, relations between Britain and India had been little more than cordial. Yet, the two nations didn’t share any space borders and so they were open to a degree of cooperation. Somerville had just spent a month carrying out war exercises with elements of the Indian Defense Force. Under different circumstances, he should have been pleased to be coming home after a successful mission. In the one on one combat simulations Achilles had outclassed her Indian opponents. Somerville had also had the opportunity to use Achilles as a flagship to command a number of Indian units in a series of simulated fleet engagements. He knew he had done well and it would look good on his personnel file, if the Admiralty ever considered him for promotion to flag rank.
Something was wrong though; he could feel it. After the month long exercises, Achilles had waited at Aror for orders to return to British space but none had come. Then the Indians had informed him that a number of expected freighters from Earth were overdue. That had been all Somerville needed to hear. He had immediately broken orbit and headed for the shift passage to Ouvea to head home.
It had taken them a week to reach Ouvea from Aror. The shift drive had been a miraculous discovery. It allowed human ships to travel at speeds that far exceeded the speed of light. Yet it had its drawbacks. It could not be engaged near gravimetric fields and objects that exerted gravity like stars, planets, asteroids and crucially, the dark matter scattered between the stars, all prevented a ship from entering shift space. With up to eighty four percent of the total mass of the galaxy consisting of the strange dark matter it limited where space ships could go with the shift drive. Finally though, they were here and as Somerville continued to pace back and forth the sensors began to fill in what was happening in the system.
The gravimetric sensors could pick up ships that were accelerating at any reasonable rate of speed. They thus provided a real time feed of what was happening. The rest of Achilles’ sensors were focused on picking up and deciphering the electromagnetic radiation coming from the inner system. Travelling at the speed of light the data they picked up was often hours out of date. Still it was better than nothing.
Around the planet there were two ships that looked like they were boosting out of orbit. Further out, a third was making its way towards the shift passage that led to New France. There was also substantial heat radiation being given off by a number of orbital factories. From the data Somerville could immediately see that two heat sources were missing. Ouvea was supposed to have two orbital battlestations. Neither was radiating heat into the cold of space. At least they hadn’t been several hours ago when the sensor data Achilles was picking up left Ouvea’s orbit.
Before Somerville could react alarms began to go off from the gravimetric plot. He immediately shifted his attention to the display but the Sub Lieutenant manning the tactical station beat him to it. “Missile launch! I repeat missile launch. They are angling towards us!”
Somerville froze for a moment. Where did they come from? His next thought catapulted him into action as his anger kicked in. Who would dare fire on a King’s ship!
“Navigation, bring us to full military power immediately, then prepare to go into evasive maneuvers,” Somerville shouted. “Tactical bring up our point defense network, then figure out how many missiles we are dealing with. Sensors, have you got a fix on the ships that opened fire yet?
“Sir,” Lieutenant Jackson at the tactical console called out. “There are four missiles homing in on us now. Our point defenses are beginning to track them. I’m also bringing up the Electronic Counter Measures.”
Somerville breathed a sigh of relief. In the combat simulations against the Indians Achilles had been able to fend off upwards of twelve missiles. Unless these four carried very sophisticated jamming modules they wouldn’t pose much of a threat.
“Jensen?” Somerville said as he looked at the Third Lieutenant, who was manning the sensor console.
“Hold on sir,” she answered. “There are two ships beginning to accelerate. They must have been in stealth mode with their engines and reactors powered down. They are separating now. One is moving towards our nose while the other is angling down towards our engine sections.”
Exactly what I would do, Somerville thought. The main firepower of a warship was its missile armament. Each carried a thermonuclear warhead that could cause serious damage to a ship from even a proximity hit. Each human ship had missile tubes down its port and starboard sides and Achilles, being a medium cruiser, had eleven missiles in each broadside. Her two attackers were angling to bring their full broadsides to bear on Achilles while she could only use her single forward and rear missile tubes.
“Not today you don’t,” Jonathan whispered to himself. “Navigation, bring our bow up seven degrees then turn to engage the first ship. Tactical, as soon as you have a clear shot fire a full broadside, I want that first ship destroyed.”
By now Achilles’ main computer had been able to get a read on the opposing ships and Royal Space Navy Intelligence data had identified them as Russian frigates. Somerville grunted in satisfaction. One broadside of eleven missiles would soon dispatch the first frigate. All they had to do was survive the four missiles approaching them.
Achilles completed her maneuver and brought her missile tubes to bear on the first frigate, giving Achilles’ tactical officer a few vital seconds to fire his broadside before he switched his full attention to commanding the point defenses.
As Somerville watched, the space around Achilles erupted into a dazzling display of lights as the small point defense plasma cannons opened up. They threw hundreds of green bolts of super heated plasma towards the approaching missiles. Then Somerville heard the familiar pop pop sound of Anti-Missile missiles launching as they too tried to intercept the approaching Russian weapons.
A gasp from the tactical officer was the first sign that something was wrong. Somerville saw it too. As the first AM missiles reached out for the Russian missiles the sensor track on them suddenly went blurry. One AM missile still struck a Russian missile but the rest failed to hit their targets. As the three remaining Russian missiles continued towards Achilles the tactical officer fired off another round of AM missiles. Even as they were streaking out towards their targets another Russian missile was hit by a plasma bolt and exploded.
Yet again, the sensor track on the Russian missiles suddenly got fuzzy. This time all the AM missiles missed. “Shit,” the tactical officer swore.
Now only thirty seconds out, Somerville knew there was no time for another round of AM missiles. “Navigation, evasive maneuvers now!” He shouted.
Even as another Russian missile exploded from a plasma
bolt, Somerville feared his ship was about to take a beating. As the navigation officer threw the ship into a series of wild maneuvers Somerville overrode the safety restrictions on Achilles’ ECM. A number of circuits and relays burnt out but those that continued to function threw a powerful wave of electromagnetic energy at the approaching missile, trying to confuse its guidance systems.
Whether from the flying of his navigation officer, the ECM or just blind luck the missile overshot its target. It’s seeker head immediately sent an order detonating the warhead in an effort to score a proximity hit. The explosion erupted in space only a thousand meters off Achilles’ starboard bow. The bridge shook and Somerville had to grab onto his command chair to remaining standing as the wave of the thermonuclear blast washed over his ship.
“Status report!” He demanded as he sat in his command chair. There was no place for standing in a naval battle. He had forgotten with everything that was going on around him.
“No hull breaches,” one of the Sub Lieutenants announced. “We have lost a number of point defense cannons from our forward starboard sections but the armor held. No reports of causalities coming in yet.”
Satisfied that they were ok, Somerville turned back to the main holo display to watch their anti-ship missiles as they approached the second frigate. He needed his first salvo to destroy its target so he could turn and face the other one.
Sparing a glance at the first frigate, he saw it was still trying to work its way around behind Achilles. For the moment though, Somerville had little choice but to let the frigate continue unopposed. If he turned after it before destroying the first frigate they were engaging now he would just be presenting his stern to it. He had to destroy one before going for the second.
Silence descended on the bridge as everyone watched, willing their missiles on to their target. No one had expected the Russian missiles to prove so successful. Sparing a glance at his crew, Jonathan saw that a number of them were tapping their command consoles and Jensen was biting her fingernails. No one quite knew what to expect from the frigate’s defenses.
When the missiles entered point defense plasma cannon range the frigate opened up on them. Soon AM missiles were streaking away from the frigate. Eleven became ten and then nine. Two more disappeared as a plasma bolt ruptured one missile’s fuel tank, the explosion taking another one with it. Still, the frigate wasn’t destroying them quick enough. In the end five missiles came tearing in on it. Three got direct hits and when the fireball dispersed nothing was of the first frigate.
Somerville let out a deep sigh, only now realizing he had been holding his breath. He hadn’t been sure his missiles would get the job done. The missing French battlestations and the impressive Russian missiles had him a bit spooked. They had worked though, and now it was time to send some after their second attacker. “Navigation, bring us about. Get our port missile tubes to bear on that frigate!”
“Aye Captain,” navigation said eagerly.
“Captain,” Lieutenant Jensen called from the sensor console. “I think I know what those missiles are doing to confuse our point defense fire.”
“Yes?” Somerville queried as he looked at her. While everyone else was focused on the second Russian frigate she had her head bowed over her sensor console.
“It’s actually rather simple,” she began. “We use the same search radar frequency for both our point defense network and the seeker heads on our AM missiles. That way our missiles can Achilles’ radar to augment their own targeting data. The Russian missiles must have some form of radar analyzer; they are determining the frequency of our radar, then, when the AM missiles get into range, they send out their own radar beams on the same frequency. The multiple returns are confusing our AM missiles’ targeting computers and causing them to miss.”
“Can we prevent them from doing it again?” Somerville asked as he jumped to his feet and rushed over to Jensen’s command console.
“Yes sir,” Jensen answered. “It’s not perfect but for now we can change the frequency for our main search radar array. It will mean our AM missiles won’t be as effective but at least they won’t be confused when the Russian missiles beam out their own radar.”
“Very good,” Somerville said as he clapped her on the shoulder. “Make the necessary changes.”
Just as he gave the order the gravimetric sensor beeped to announce that the remaining frigate had finally managed to reload its missile tubes and had fired two more at Achilles. It was too late. Achilles was already turning to face the threat and her main point defenses could target the incoming missiles. As she turned, her port missiles tubes came to bear and eleven missiles shot out after the frigate. Give how successful their last broadside had been Somerville knew it was overkill. He wanted to make sure all the same.
The Russian missiles were the first to reach their target. Thankfully, Jensen’s alteration of the tracking radar frequencies worked just as expected. As a wave of AM missiles reached towards the approaching Russian missiles and plucked both out of existence. The Russian frigate didn’t fare so well. They managed to destroy four of the eleven British missiles but the rest came crashing into the small ship. It was impossible to tell how many actually scored a direct hit but in the end it didn’t matter. Nothing was left of the frigate.
“Set course for Ouvea,” Somerville ordered when it was clear the frigate was no longer a threat. “Take us into orbit. We need to find out exactly what is going on here.”
“Sensors,” he called to Lieutenant Jensen. “Keep a close watch on the system. If there is even a whiff of another Russian ship I want to know about it immediately. I’m going to survey the damage of the ship. You all did well today, just as we have trained,” he said as he stood and left the bridge.
*
Several hours later Somerville was again pacing on the bridge. As Achilles approached the French colony on Ouvea she had beamed out communications on all the channels her communications officer could think of. Yet there had been no reply. It was as if every ship and station in orbit, and every town and city on the planet, was asleep.
As he was considering what to do next, Somerville’s thoughts were interrupted by the Sub Lieutenant who had taken over the communications console when the watch had changed. “Sir, I’m getting a communication from one of the stations in orbit. It looks like it is relaying a message from the planet.”
“Put is on the main holo display,” Somerville ordered.
Moments later the image of a large bearded man in combat armor appeared. The markings on his breastplate indicated that he served in the Russian Army, his rank insignia marked him out as a Lieutenant General. There was also a rank insignia engraved into the combat armor but Jonathan didn’t know what it signified, though it did look important.
“British ship,” the man began, “this system is now under the administration of the Russian Space Federation. Your presence here is illegal. I demand that you leave immediately. If you remain we will take it as an act of war. If that happens I can’t be held responsible for the population of this planet.”
“Short and sweet,” Somerville said for his bridge crew after the Russian cut the communication. His quip had been for show though; inside he was seething. He knew what the Russian commander was threatening. The population of the planet was nothing to him. His superiors might even reward him if some of the population were to meet an untimely end. If the Russians had invaded the planet they no doubt wanted it for themselves. A native population would only get in the way once they started bringing in their own colonists.
Somerville’s fists bunched up into balls and he began to grind his teeth. It was just like Radian IV all over again. Back then he had been a freshly minted Commander. In his new frigate, Brute, he had been sent to an isolated mining station to investigate reports of an uprising. When he had arrived he found six men who had fallen out with the station’s administration and taken thirty workers hostage. The Captain of Brute’s marines had stormed the section where t
he hostages were but the men had used them as human shields. In the end twenty had been killed. Seeing all those bodies torn up by plasma rifles still haunted his dreams. He hated cravens who hid behind civilians. It was the worst form of cowardice. This Russian would pay, Somerville swore to himself.
“Record this and send it,” he ordered once he had calmed himself enough to control his reply.
He then stood and looked towards one of the imaging devices on the bridge. “Russian commander, this is Captain Jonathan Somerville of the Royal Space Navy. It is customary to identify yourself when dealing with foreign representatives. My ship, HMS Achilles, is in the Ouvea system at the request of the French government. Two of your naval ships fired upon my ship without any provocation. I take that as an act of war. Your presence on Ouvea is another act of war. I hope you haven’t become too comfortable. We’ll be finishing this conversation in person very soon. Good day sir.” As he finished he made sure he projected his most confident smile.
“Message sent sir,” the communications officer said. “May I ask,” she continued, “do you really intend to try to liberate Ouvea?”
“Certainly not,” Somerville answered. “But it won’t hurt us for him to be thinking about what we might be planning.”