07:45 Board Room

The nine captains were discussing the day’s events. Everyone was surprised by the recent actions. Though not everyone was bought into John’s explanation. A couple of captains had even agreed with the leadership of the Topeka’s decision to effectively ignore the cadets.

“Lief, they are veterans. They know what’s going on,” Cadet Veronica Shipley said.

Richard Parks spoke up next, “I’m on the fence about this, but you’ve done enough to keep an open mind about this.”

“My captains and I remain skeptical of all this, but some things aren’t lining up. We’ll go to flank speeds to get out to you,” Patrice said despite not looking convinced.

“Pat, are you serious?” Cadet Pierre Labbe said incredulously, “I agreed to follow you but now that I know the whole story.”

“If he’s wrong Lief owns the egg on his face. He hasn’t avoided owning any mistake he’s made,” Patrice said.

“And how many times has he been right Vernon?” Kristin asked, “It sounds like bullshit, except it isn’t since we got a spoofed distress signal. And then a few days later one of our corvettes ups and vanishes.”

The cadet captains paused. There wasn’t any hard proof of what John was suggesting. They were right in being skeptical. But it wasn’t just John. Both Kristin and Joeng had received the distress signal and none of the other ships received it. The circumstantial evidence was hard to ignore, and for the other two wolfpacks, it was rising above their dislike of John.

“I’m in, though like Richard I’m very skeptical,” Cadet Sofia Perez said.

Alex Johnson looked at Pierre and nodded in agreement.

“Very well, we’ll match the speed and arrive there in four days,” Pierre said reluctantly.

“Lief, how many more ships from our class are out there?”

“Two more wolfpacks as of today. Vance and Montgomery are their leaders. I don’t know Vance. We curb-stomped Montgomery in a wargame. I doubt he’ll want to chat with me.”

Patrice nodded his head, “I know Lee Vance pretty well. I’ll talk to him.”

Alex jumped in next, “I went to high school with Chase Montgomery. Lived next door to him in the dorms the last couple of years. It shouldn’t take too much to get him signed on to our motley crew.”

“I don’t normally want to be wrong, but I sure hope I am here,” John said, “Thank you all. We’ll be in touch.”

The lights began to turn on as the connection to the other captains was cut. John leaned back in the chair and exhaled. Fifteen corvettes weren’t going to win a war. But in a small engagement, they could absolutely be counted on to annihilate enemy fighters and missiles. With enough coordination and a hell of a lot of luck, they could wreck a battlecruiser if they were combining their railgun fire. Millions of permutations began working through John’s mind as he stared at the ceiling.

Lieutenant Lori Nicks walked into the room and spoke, “You are walking a dangerous line cadet.”

John pushed the chair back and stood up to face the lieutenant, “If I’m wrong, then I look like a conspiracy theorist. If I’m right, we could help turn the tide.”

“You are aware that if any hostilities that cadets should retreat and head directly back to Earth.”

“I am, although that order is contradicted if friendly vessels are under attack in our sphere of influence. Were the Topeka to come under attack around the Jovian slipstream corridor then we’d be duty-bound to render aid.”

Lori looked confused and began scrolling through her tablet, “I’m not sure…”

“Naval Code of Conduct, Military Engagement. Section 1.a.ii if I’m not mistaken,” John said as he locked the terminal on the sidewall, “Something is going to happen here lieutenant, I can feel it in my bones. I just hope to hell I’m wrong.”

John walked around the Lieutenant as she read and re-read the section. She wore a confused face as she came to a similar conclusion as John had. She walked out of the board room and immediately walked back to her room. She needed clarification from her commander about whether or not these orders superseded one another.

John walked to the dining section to get some food. Kori and Andern were there already eating their meals. Rich was as well though he looked like he was struggling with what to eat.

“Got some leftover green tea if you drink that stuff captain,” Kori said.

“What the fuck do I want to eat,” muttered Rich.

“Rich, toss me a breakfast packet if you would,” John said as he was pouring himself a glass of green tea.

“Care which one?”

“Thrill me.”

Rich pulled out the breakfast door and reached into it. He pulled out one packet and tossed it to John. He had taken a quick look at the label.

“Think you lucked out with a breakfast sandwich.”

John smiled as he looked at the contents, “That I did. Thanks, bud.”

He walked over to the microwave and placed the contents in it. John took a sip of the tea and turned around. Andern, as he was known to do, was playing with his food and delaying the inevitable. Kori was more motivated than Andern to get her homework and lessons finished, but she used Andern as an excuse to delay the inevitable.

“Dude, stop delaying. The sooner both of you start your homework the sooner you can chill in the rec room.”

“Says the guy that probably has all three classes done already,” Andern spat back sarcastically.

“No, I have one class done. Should have the second done today. Well, aside from the finals obviously.”

Kori cocked her head a bit and looked squarely at John, “You suck.”

“Right?” Andern exclaimed.

“Oh, shut up,” John said as he pulled out his warmed-up food.

John sat down and began eating his meal. Andern finished his and with Kori took his advice to start working on homework. Rich finally decided on spaghetti with meatballs for his meal. After John was finished eating, he retreated to the conference room that was reserved for studying. By the time he had his fill of homework and lessons, he had finished his second class.

8 Days Later. 14:25 Captains Quarters

John was tossing and turning in his sleep. His restlessness was tied to his belief that something was bound to happen. John rolled over once more and woke himself up. He tossed the covers off of him and stood up. He walked over too and leaned on his desk.

“Fuck, maybe I am wrong.”

John sat down in the chair and rubbed his forehead. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. The screen on his terminal switched to communications and it began blinking. John looked up and press the receive button.

“Hey honey,” John said smiling.

“How’s my conspiracy theorist?” Alice said half chuckling.

John snorted, “Maybe I am losing my mind. I think my patience isn’t going to let me live like this for another two weeks.”

“Wouldn’t hurt you to be wrong for a change. You are right at an irritatingly high rate for some.”

Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

“Including you?”

Alice laughed, “I only said some people. Get some rest. You’ll need it if something does happen.”

“Oh, so now I’m not a theorist?” John laughed, “Love you too.”

“Love you,” Alice blew a kiss into the screen.

John locked the console and crawled back into bed. His restlessness wasn’t cured but he did get back to sleep. He managed to finish one sleep cycle before he was woken up once again.

“Yellow alert,” Kevin said over the ship’s intercom, “All hands to battle stations.”

John stood up and pressed the intercom button above his bed, “Kevin, report.”

“The Topeka and her battlegroup have come under attack. Long-range communications became garbled immediately after the SOS. I’ve already alerted the rest of our corvette fleet via tight beam communication. They will be arriving in fifteen minutes.”

“Belay that, make way towards the Topeka, adjust our speed so that all of the corvettes get here at the same time.”

“Understood,” Kevin said.

John pressed the ship-wide communications button, “This is your captain. In less than thirty minutes we will engage hostiles. The first and second shifts are to return to your berths and put on void sheaths. Bring your helmets with you when you get to your station. The third shift will do the same after being relieved.”

John took off his shorts and pulled the void sheath out of his closet. He zipped it up and attached the chest armor piece which doubled as its power source. The helmet was hanging on a hook. John grabbed that and headed to the bridge.

16:00 Bridge

“Kevin, you are relieved. I want you in engineering after you change,” John said as he walked into the bridge.

“I stand relieved,” Kevin saluted then ran out of the bridge.

Andern spun around, “Rich was way better with weapons. I’m taking care of coms.”

Nathan walked in and took the left console, “Naturally, I’ve got the helm.”

“Andern, let the other ships know that void-protocols are in place. We can survive through and through. Hard to breathe the void though.”

“On it, letting them know.”

John brought up the tactical map and showed their location relative to the Topeka. Communications were scattered and chaotic. Whatever the enemy, whoever they may be, wanted with the corvette was achieved. Communications were not clear across standard channels. Line of Sight tight beam communications were not affected.

“Long-range scans are coming in sir. One of our ships appeared to be completely disabled. The enemy appears to be the Alliance. Fighters are swarming our capital ships. The enemy appears to have four ships. A light carrier, battlecruiser, and a pair of heavy cruisers.”

“Great counter to what we had onsite. Do we have any FTL communications available?”

“That’s a negative, we’ve already sent messages back to Earth, but we may be on our own.”

John plotted a course and shared it with Andern and Nathan, “Share that with our fleet Andern and get them on the line.”

“Aye aye,” Andern got busy working on the tight beam communications setup between the ships.

“All ships are in formation sir,” Nathan said.

“All ahead flank.”

The tactical display on the main screen was scrunched into the right half of the screen. One by one the other fourteen ships in their fleet began to be added to the list. Within two minutes all of the ships were connected.

“Looks like he wasn’t insane,” Kristin said.

John winced at that comment, “Now’s not the time to determine my sanity or to call anyone else out. In eighteen minutes, we will be weapons hot. We have a light carrier, battlecruiser, a pair of heavy cruisers along with a shitload of fighters. We are unsure when reinforcements will arrive on either side. Prepare for additional enemy contacts.”

“We just received a message from Jupiter Control. Our reinforcements are coming but they are sixty minutes out.”

“Forty minutes, how are we going to do that?” Sofia asked.

“We need to get rid of the fighters using our PDCs. We need to get danger close,” Pierre said.

Patrice shook his head, “We need to be attacking the way in. John, I suggest we launch all missiles prior to their maximum lock range. Then launch them all at the carrier.”

“Why the carrier?” John asked a question he knew the answer to.

“The fighters will no longer be able to rearm. Once their heavy munitions are used, they are used.”

“Agreed,” John said nodding his head.

“With all of us targeting the battlecruiser with our railguns,” Joeng said.

“Are our railguns powerful enough to damage a BC’s shields or armor?” Alex asked.

“We’re firing twenty-kilo slugs. It’s a massive difference from a frigate or destroyer’s main guns,” Kristin said.

“Yet, those twenty-kilo slugs impact with a similar force of a small thermonuclear bomb. Less the radiation of course. Can we destroy her? Unlikely, but we can likely blow out their arrays with the amount of fire she’ll have to absorb. If we're allowed to shoot at them unabated we can do a hell of a lot of damage,” John said calmly, “And take out some of her secondary weapons and protection systems.”

“And if they are angled incorrectly their hull gets shredded with lightning-quick buckshot. Armor plates will spall when enough force is imparted onto them,” Kristin said.

“Our railguns will target the battlecruiser. Once we have a firing pattern, we will engage the ship. Each wolfpack will target a singular spot on the ship. We’re all going to come in hot, once we get to this point,” John showed a rough position on the tactical map, “Then each pack is going to split up to give as much PDC cover to our ships and annihilate the fighters.”

“What about the plasma lances?” Richard asked.

“They aren’t likely to do anything to the big ships. Target the weapons arrays on the carrier. Once we get in close, shift all heavy weapon targets to the heavy cruisers.”

“Understood,” the other captains said.

Others nodded on screen. They all had varying levels of apprehension. John stood up and walked toward the center console.

“This is our time to turn the tide. We need to delay the enemy by forty minutes. If you take damage immediately fall back and steam hard toward Earth. Do not look back. Bug out. We can do this, get your crews ready and let’s kick some ass.”

The corvettes ripped through the void at breakneck speed. They began to spread out. As they did each ship began launching missiles. They exited their tubes and flew in tight formation near their mothership.

Ten minutes later they were rocketing toward their target. The tactical map had several colored spheres depicted on it. The red one, which they were rapidly closing in on was when they could achieve a hard lock on the carrier. The orange sphere was the outer range for their railguns. The gold sphere indicated their plasma lance range.

Andern turned back and noticed John staring intently at the tactical map, “Lances aren’t likely to do much are they?”

“Thirty lances are a lot of firepower. Their electromagnetic shields should hold, but we don’t know what kind of damage our ships have done,” John paused and pressed the intercom button, “Wei, what's the status of our ships?”

“Bruised but fighting back. Additional scans show four enemy frigates, one of which is disabled.”

“Share that info with the rest of the fleet.”

John began having doubts about his plan. Maybe they should target the cruisers and frigates instead. Reducing the among of guns could go a long way to help their cause. He began to type in things at his terminal.

Kevin radioed up, “Your plan is sound. The number of rail shots coming in will either shred that armor of hers or blow out the arrays. Don’t second guess yourself.”

“Do we need fifteen ships shooting at her?”

Kevin paused, “You’re not likely to hit a frigate from that range as you are that battlecruiser.”

John continued to look at his terminal. More data points were keyed in. Kevin was right. They didn’t have to be all that accurate to hit a battlecruiser. It was over two kilometers in length and nearly half a kilometer wide. The odds of striking the frigate at the max range were effectively non-existent.

They could also kill the engines and use the thrusters to point at enemy shifts as they strafe past them. But that also has fairly low rates of striking the target. John took a deep breath and closed his eyes briefly. He was trying to quash the doubt that was growing within him.

“To hell with it, we’re rolling with the original strat.”

“Sixty seconds to missile hard lock range,” Nathan said.

“Captain, the Sao Paolo has taken control of our missile targeting systems,” James said over the intercom.

“Show me the targets he’s selected on the carrier,” John ordered.

The tactical screen zoomed into the carrier. Dozens of red diamonds began to appear across the ship. A dozen were aimed at the main ship’s hangar bay. All told, one-hundred-fifty missiles would be launched. John figured less than twenty would actually impact the ship. Though if their shields were weakened or facing toward the main enemy and not the reinforcement fleet then maybe the lances could weaken their defenses.

“Thirty seconds,” Nathan said.

Patrice unmuted himself, “Targets selected, missiles will fire once all ships have achieved hard lock.”

“Fifteen seconds,” Nathan said.

The captains of each ship began to get tense. Each one was counting down in their head. Time appeared to slow down as the red number climbed down to zero on the tactical overlay.

“Missiles away,” Patrice said.

“Thirty seconds to rail range. Fifty-five to lance range.”

John stood up and leaned on the console and spoke, “The object of war is not to die for your country, but to make the other asshole die for his.”

Andern chuckled, “You have a way with words.”

Kristin heard her boyfriend’s comment and shook her head, “That was Patton you twit.”

“I intend to live by those words. I expect you all to do the same. God speed and good hunting,” a smile formed on John's face after saying those words.

He turned around and sat down on his chair and pressed the ship-wide intercom, “Helmets on. Going to a vacuum when we begin to fire the railgun.”

The corvettes continued to rip through the void at breakneck speeds. Weapons firing and impacts could be seen by the visible eye now. They were seconds away from firing their ship's main guns. The railgun ran the length of the ship and could send four twenty kilogram slugs a minute.

While the slug was unremarkable by itself, it was fired at relativistic speeds. It would convert its potential energy into a tremendous amount of kinetic energy and heat. In theory, they could pierce the outer hull armor of that battlecruiser. John didn’t think it was possible for them to sink the big ship. Everything else was fair game, but if they could damage her shielding systems, they stood a chance.

“Ten seconds to railgun range,” Nathan shouted.

The corvettes hurtled through space. Each of their main engine cones was glowing red hot for driving their engines as fast as they had. The main engines were set to idle on the ships. One by one the blue-white plasma ball decreased in size until a flicker of plasma appeared.

Fifteen railgun slugs were fired. Newton’s laws were now guiding the projectiles. Somewhere, someplace, and sometime; someone’s day would be ruined should they miss their target. The cadets had done their due diligence though. These shots were fired true. And they would soon strike the massive battlecruiser that grew larger and larger in the viewscreen. They were about to announce themselves to the battle in about the loudest manner possible. Here they would rage against the darkness that is battle. Here they would see whether or not they would see the light of another day.