December 28th, 2261. 04:05 Lambda Bootis System. CNS Des Moines – CNC
John was sitting in his normal seat in CNC. He somehow managed to get some decent rest during his off-hours despite what he knew was coming. The dread he was feeling had reached palpable levels. There was still a glimmer of hope left that the enemy fleet was going to skip by this system.
Or at least there was at the start of his shift. That outcome wouldn’t come to pass, however. The stealth wing was able to detect a slipstream wake outside of the gravity well of the nearby planet. The stealth ships moved into position around the second moon of the third planet. Each second the weight of impending death weighed down on John.
“How are you doing lieutenant?” the Chief Engineer said in John’s earpiece.
“Clever trick sir. Very clever indeed,” John whispered as he saw how the Chief had circumvented protocol to message him privately, “I’m unwell. We’re literally waiting for our death.”
“What’s the likelihood of you being able to get us out of this jam?”
John grunted as he tried to make himself look busy, “I can’t just murder or incapacitate the captain and first officer without being drummed out. I don’t have enough pull on this ship to detain them either.”
“Most of the engineering crew would support you. I’d presume the marines would largely be on your side too.”
“I’m not going that far, sir. While I believe it is the right course of action it would not only effectively ruin my career and frankly besides you and the junior offices in CNC, but everyone also follows the captain. Our only out is to win this engagement.”
“Ships are emerging. Signatures are four cruisers, frigates, and one battleship,” Eileen shouted in CNC.
“Lady luck may be on our side Chief. God speed to us all,” John whispered as he ended the call.
“Cruisers have been successfully identified. Their class is CA-4D, very old and noticeably weaker than our cruisers,” John said as he began trying to identify the battleship.
“Frigates are DL-8Es. Transmitting data to the fleet,” Beth said.
“The Dallas has identified the battleship. BB-10D, that’s not at all what we were expecting,” Billy said, “A 10D is nothing like the 12C we have been drilling for.”
“It’s a baby dreadnought,” John said as he opened a channel to the bridge, “Captain, our intel and plan are wrong. We cannot take on that battleship.”
Kory looked down, “You have thirty seconds to explain.”
“The 10Ds are an older design, however, they have four turrets containing three rail cannons. Two of them, and many times three, can shoot at you. While the guns are noticeably weaker than the main gun, they put out just as much power as our railguns do. On top of that, it has forty percent more CIC weapons. We do not have the firepower and are in undersized ships, to take that out. This class also has substantially more armor, our guns aren’t going to pierce her hull in any meaningful way.”
Kory ran his simulation really quick. He raised an eyebrow at the results. He looked back at John dismissively.
“We are going to continue with the plan. Our fleet will receive more damage, but the expected losses are still within acceptable limits for such an engagement.”
The channel closed and then was followed by a fleet-wide message.
“Attention, contacts have jumped into the system. We will begin our attack run in sixty seconds. Full burn. Updated targeting lists have been shared with the fleet.”
John stood up and began walking out of the room. Hugo noticed that and walked out of his office. He spoke up before John left.
“Lieutenant, you aren’t on leave.”
“No sir, I am not. I’m going to bridge to help us win this clusterfuck.”
“You’re going to ignore any order I give you, aren’t you?”
“That would be correct, sir.”
Hugo nodded but John had already walked out of the door. Once in the hallway he ran down towards the stairwell and sped up two flights of stairs. He very nearly pancaked a gangly-looking petty officer as he was rounding the turn into the main hallway to the bridge.
The doors to the bridge wouldn’t open when he pressed the button. Repeated button-pushing didn’t help the issue. The old adage ‘if at first it doesn’t work’ was a load of shit thought John. He pressed the terminal’s screen and entered an old intelligence authorization code for ships.
Not surprisingly, the doors opened. The surprised look of the security officer and engineering petty officer clearly meant that they weren’t expecting either the doors to open or him to hurry into the bridge. John strode in and sat next to the chief petty officer in charge of weapons. He entered his codes into the terminal and took over primary targeting.
“I’ve got the primary weapons chief. Please take care of the missiles and CIC weapon systems. Lieutenant Guetta, I suggest you coordinate targeting with the fleet,” John said as he hurriedly typed things into his terminal, “Billy, what is the EM shielding like on that class of ship?”
Billy’s voice was piped into the main speakers of the bridge, “Bad. Bursts would be relatively effective at disabling portions of the ship’s defenses. The main turrets are hardened though.”
“Captain, I recommend the first wave of missiles include focused EM bursts warheads,” John said as he was already changing the loadout of the missiles, “They should bring down some of their systems temporarily giving us a fighting edge against the enemy.”
Both the chief petty officer and the tactical officer looked over at John with an incredulous look. Kelly and Kory both looked back. Neither of them appeared happy to see John on the bridge. Much less his recommendations for changing the plan.
“Off my bridge now!” Kory ordered.
“Captain, I’m here to make sure we live. If you remove me from the bridge, we’re all dead within five minutes. But if you use all your assets that are available on this ship, which includes me, then we have a chance. Don’t use me and we’re dead. I’m not here to make you look bad. I’m here so you can make use of my capabilities.”
Kelly didn’t even try to comprehend what John had just said, “Lieutenant Moreland. Detain Lieutenant Lief and bring him to the brig.”
“Lieutenant Page, I mean this from a general sense of practicality. I could kill both you and the captain and incapacitate the rest of the bridge crew and end this farce of a raid with minimal effort on my part. I am following my captain’s orders however idiotic I may believe them to be,” John said calmly as he pressed a few buttons to display his simulation, “You need me here if you hope to have success in this battle. Deep down Captain, you know this won’t work without me, and even with me I can’t guarantee success.”
Kory chuckled, “You’re holding yourself in high esteem.”
“I’m smarter than everyone on this ship combined, yet another thing I know you are keenly aware of. I also approach battle in a drastically different way than you, and it has been proven to be successful many times over not only in simulations but in real battles. You may hate me, even loath me, and that’s fine, but I intend on living through this. Despite all your misgivings and everything else, I know you know damn well that you need me right here, right now. Contrary to popular belief it is precisely because I do know what the fuck I am doing.”
“Very well, belay that order Lieutenant Moreland,” Kory motioned to the security officer, “Lieutenant, weapons are yours.”
John nodded and opened a channel to the fleet, “All ships are to release ten missiles each. Three out of each ten are to be configured as high-yield EM burst warheads. Targeting orders are given to each ship now. Commence launch in ten seconds. Missiles will follow motherships until the final launch order is issued.”
The other ships read back in the affirmative. Missiles were launched and followed each ship as the fleet screamed around the moon. They would close the distance between the moon and its host planet in minutes. They were also coming in directly from the sun, which should obscure them to the enemy fleet’s visual sensors.
John looked at the sensor readings and the lack of enemy ships was concerning him. Where were the rest of them? He was deeply concerned about them jumping out of slip space while they were committed to this asinine attack.
He chuckled to himself as he added another line of thinking to his overworked brain. If this did succeed, he was certain that Kory, Kelly, and the others would take credit for their amazing and daring plan. He shook his head at the thought. A more likely outcome was groups of people mourning the loss of hundreds of lives in a pointless raid made to feed the ego of a young Lieutenant Commander.
The stealth fleet had finished their orbit around the moon and could see the planet. The engines were pushed to their max and they were furiously driving the ships forward through the void between stellar objects.
During that time John heavily modified the targeting and shooting priorities. The frigates were going to focus all their efforts on destroying the enemy escorts. The cruisers were going to focus on taking out the turreted rail cannons. The destroyers would run interference for any hostile missiles that were sent their way. That was the hope anyway.
If, and it that was a huge assumption, they could take out the turrets of the battleship they very well could cripple the big old girl. John had serious doubts about the efficacy of their weapons against her hull. Yet here he was, working away furiously.
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The simple truth of the matter is that John’s self-preservation instinct kicked in. He said no to simply killing or incapacitating the senior officers onboard because while it likely was the morally right thing to do, it would mean he’d be out of the military. This option, which John was admittedly regretting right now, was far more likely to end in their deaths.
John was estimating that within twenty minutes his life would, not could, be over. That’s a horribly somber thing to estimate. On some level, he wished he still had his powers. Either to just turn the key and hold nothing back or to subtly suggest they do something else besides a suicide charge.
Kory’s master joke of a plan had effectively been rewritten and shared with the entire fleet. As they were speeding toward the planet Kory was looking at his tactical display and noticed the shift in how the fleet was arranged.
“Lief, I didn’t give you carte blanche rights to change the plan.”
“You’re correct, sir. I changed the plan because this one gives us better odds of success and survival. After this is over, you’re more than free to charge me with any number of violations that you think are applicable. My plan eliminates the support vessels and cripples their most effective weapon against us. Your battle plan gives us less than a three percent chance of successfully destroying the battleship on average. Mine is substantially more likely to result in the complete disabling of that vessel and the elimination of the escorts.”
Kelly looked back at Kory, “Contact in five, it’s far too late to change.”
“You and I are going to have a conversation about this after the mission.”
“Presuming we’re alive, sir. I will welcome this conversation,” John said without looking at his captain.
John ignored what Kelly was saying to Kory and continued with his work. The chief petty officer that was sitting next to him had read, and successfully interpreted John’s plan. The two shared a very brief conversation about what and where to target.
John then opened up a line with CNC, “Beth, any indications that they see us?”
“None. It’s unlikely they’d see the first wave of missiles until they were far too close. At least the initial wave. The railgun fire would alert them though.”
“Roger that,” John said as he continued to work overtime to fix Kory’s hot mess of an attack plan.
John then said to his captain, “I suggest we give the fleet free rein to fire their remaining missiles and torpedoes at their captain’s will. Unrestricted fire the moment the first missile strikes the target, but we must hold railgun fire until after the missiles strike their targets.”
Kory pressed a button on his armrest to open a channel to the fleet, “This is the fleet command, fire missiles, hold fire on the railguns until after the missiles impact. We don’t want to alert them ahead of time.”
He then swiveled his chair and looked back at John, “What’s the best-case scenario in the opening salvo?”
“Escorts crippled or destroyed, the battleship being blinded and two of the four turrets, along with a significant portion of CIC weapons destroyed.”
“Worst case?”
“Fuck all damage, sir. I would strongly suggest we burn hard away from the enemies and pray we can break orbit before they can engage us if that happens.”
“I’ll make the call on that Lieutenant,” Kory almost hissed the command.
“Can we launch a second wave like the first?” Kelly asked.
Lieutenant Perry Guetta finally spoke up as he read through all of John’s changes and target recommendations, “I wouldn’t recommend it, it’s easier to overwhelm CIC weapons with pulses of missiles rather than a single large wave. Seems counterintuitive but that’s a trait our ships share as well.”
“Captain, time to outermost effective weapon range is ten seconds on my mark,” the chief petty officer said in a duty-like tone.
“Time on the missiles?” Kory asked.
John shared their trajectories, speed, and the estimated time of impact on the side of the main viewscreen, “Twenty-eight seconds and counting. Sir, I recommend we do not slow down. Our speed will give us an advantage over that big ship.”
“Can’t hit what they can’t track. The downside is the orbit time though for a second wave. Agreed, we should do this. Kelly, communicate with the fleet.”
John sent a message to CNC about any other detectable vessels or any slip wakes. They reported back nearly instantly and said nothing was detected. He said to be on alert for any and to immediately alert the fleet of any new contacts or wakes should any be detected.
“Time to impact in five…four…three…two…one…” the Petty Officer Prince Minenhle said.
Kory had his finger just above the fleet channel and pressed it the moment the impacts were registered, “Weapons hot, follow target tables.”
The fleet opened up with their weapons. Railguns flashed, and more missiles and the odd torpedo were launched from the stealth fleet. The cruisers also added their plasma lances to the ongoing fire. Alliance ships brought their kinetic and EM shields online. But it was slow to engage which resulted in their armor being scarred and damaged by fire, but the big ship was holding.
The first wave of missiles was highly effective though. The EM bursts had effectively blinded most of the enemy ships. The initial missile volley left one enemy frigate without engines in a degrading orbit to the small world beneath. The other frigate exploded in a bright ball of white-hot plasma. The cruisers weathered the attacks better but were left without most of their defenses and weaponry.
The shields being down let the fleet score some critical damage due to the lack of kinetic shielding. The rounds that did get through raised hell with the variety of systems onboard the enemy vessels. But eventually, power was rerouted to their shields to better protect them from the railgun rounds.
Shortly after this, the first enemy cruiser was destroyed. The second and third soon fell. The final cruiser tried to evade some missiles but got too close to the battleship, which blocked the big girl’s CIC weapons from engaging the missiles. The engine cone was struck, greatly reducing its ability to maneuver. It actually drifted into and impacted on the starboard side of the battleship right on that side’s turret, effectively shearing it off from the big ship. It bounced off the big ship and helplessly fell in toward the planet’s surface.
“Sir, escorts are out of the fight. Two of the four…” Lieutenant Guetta was interrupted by a bright flash on their view screen.
One of their friendly destroyers in the fleet took a rail round fired by the rail cannon in its central power core. The chief petty officer was stunned momentarily and delayed firing the missiles he had loaded up. John reached over and finished typing in the firing commands and fired the missiles.
“New targeting array for the fleet,” John said to the open fleet channel, “Five rail rounds to this location, then five to the alternate location. Now!”
The battleship had bared its teeth to the fleet. As expected, the rail cannons were more than potent enough to take out a small vessel. John didn’t really want to test whether or not their cruiser could tank one of those shells. Hell, even in a battlecruiser or larger he didn’t really want to see if it could. How he desperately wished he had bigger guns available to him.
Kory and Kelly looked on nervously. Questions that were directed to the pair took longer than expected to be responded to. Their responses became more and more childish and non-sensical.
Packs of missiles continued to be fired at the battleship. Large sections of the armor were deeply scarred, but aside from the turrets and CIC defensive weaponry, no critical damage had been done. The outer hull, while looking like a cratered mess, hadn’t been breached.
The distance between the ships was closing at a hellishly fast pace. The Des Moines was no longer facing in the same direction it was traveling in. Its railgun continued to alter the course shot after shot. One more, lucky as it may have been, rail slug found its target. The third rail cannon turret had been knocked out of commission. The loan remaining turret was also seriously damaged, but still able to fire.
The big girl, despite the punishment she had shrugged off fired off another volley from the rail cannons. The CNS Kyoto, the very next ship produced in the Oslo class after the Des Moines, was torn asunder by the three rounds. There was no explosion, the ship’s spine and main railgun were mercilessly broken by a single round. The other two rounds sheared off sections of the vessel. Three large chunks were representing a once proud, but now very dead ship. Its final end, ignoble as it were, would likely be burning up in the atmosphere of the planet below them.
“CONTACT. Slip wakes are appearing off the port side. Reinforcements arriving,” Billy shouted throughout the coms.
“Recommend we disengage,” John said immediately, “This fight is lost, we’re not going to be able to break the battleship’s armor. We’re running low on missiles, but that battleship is going to spend months in the drydock.”
Kory looked and sounded bewildered, “How many contacts…”
“Captain, I strongly recommend we disengage,” John shouted as he continued firing the rail cannon at anything he perceived as a weak spot on the big ship.
The Des Moines shook and was knocked off its court for a brief moment. Kory was about to ask what happened. The Chief Engineer radioed up to the bridge.
“The forward starboard plasma lance is out of commission. The rest of the starboard lances received damage because of feedback in the array. We had to shut them down, port lances are still functional,” Deniz then added, “Our kinetic shielding cannot handle a glancing blow, much less a head on one from that fucking turret.”
“We’re outnumbered nearly four to one,” John said, “Hostile reinforcements will be in weapons range in two minutes. Recommend we come about to course thirty-five, down six degrees. And launch all remaining missiles back at her.”
“No, we press the attack, we can…” Kory said before being interrupted again
The CNS Ferdinand fired a missile, but then it slowed down and began rolling over to its port side. Behind their attack wing was yet another enemy force, previously unseen and undetected. A pair of cruisers were bearing down on the fleet and leading the enemy charge.
“MORE CONTACTS, BEHIND US!” Eileen shouted, “Sixteen in total, frigates, and cruisers.”
“We’re getting boxed in,” John said as he continued to fire the railgun.
The chief petty officer continued firing all of the weapons available to him. Perry slammed a fist onto the terminal. He then looked up and spoke.
“That’s it, missile and torpedo stores empty.”
“CAPTAIN,” John shouted, “RECOMMEND WE RETREAT NOW.”
Kory looked shellshocked. He couldn’t believe his eyes. Things were going well. Not according to his plan, the fresh lieutenant had changed everything about the attack, but it was working so well. There’d be time to understand the how and why later. But now everything was falling apart.
How though? How could it all fall apart? And so quickly. Kory had frozen up; he couldn’t give any orders because he couldn’t process how everything had gone to shit so quickly.
Kelly had a deer in headlights look as well. She was just in as much shock and confusion as her captain. Unfortunately, John was too busy manning the weapons to see that these two were now useless. Then the Des Moines shook violently, and her railgun seized up.
John looked up and saw their senior leadership was useless and pressed the fleet channel button, “Break off the attack, change course too…”
Four friendly vessels exploded in bright explosions of plasma at once. Four more CNS vessels kind of just simply died in the void. In those, the power was lost, and they just began drifting. Rapid atmospheric leaks were emanating from each. Their exit route was blocked, and enemy cruisers were closing the distance from the plane.
“Chief, kill the engine and shut the exterior lights. Helm after the next wave disable the corrective engines and let the ship go in a lazy roll,” John shouted, “Make them think…”
Deniz killed the engine immediately. A rail shot grazed the drive cone almost at the same time. But the helmsmen didn’t get a chance to force the ship into a lazy roll, not that he needed to in order to follow John’s order. Several missiles and plasma lances struck the port-sized which did the job for the helmsmen. Bulkheads shuttered immediately. Armor plates were sheared off.
“What’s going on?” Kory asked.
“You got us killed you fucking idiot,” John said defiantly.
A rail round pierced the forward ammunition stores and an explosion rocked the vessel. But before being able to react to that, a missile then exploded on top of the bridge. The shockwave caused sparks to fly everywhere, small fires to start, and most worryingly a support beam in the ceiling buckled and splintered.
Kory, who was staring straight forward while having a death hold on the arms of his chair, was impaled by a shard of an I-beam that fell through. The shared easily sliced through him and pierced the floor beneath the captain’s chair. Another piece struck Kelly on the back of the head, killing her instantly. More metal, support beams, and fiber bundles fell and struck the crew sitting below them
At the same time, several power relays behind the terminals exploded along the rear wall of the bridge. John looked back at one of the explosions but then a chair, which was supposed to have been bolted down struck him. A chunk of sharp metal from the chair had scraped across his head. The chair struck John hard enough to knock him out cold.
John fell over and splayed out onto his terminal. Blood was streaming down his head and cheek and drool was coming out of his mouth. A small smile had oddly formed on John’s face as smoke began to fill the room. The last thought in John’s mind before he drifted into unconsciousness was unexpected to him.
‘Death comes to us all.’