October 6th, 2265. 17:50 CNS Waukesha – Bridge
Nearly three hours had passed. Two more waves of pirate reinforcements had arrived during the ensuing scrum. The Confederate reinforcements were still three hours away, maybe a hair under two hours if they received their messages. The Folly of Icarus and a portion of John’s task force continued to give their joint enemies the fight of their lives.
The Waukesha was out of cruise missiles. All that remained left were a handful of torpedoes and smaller anti-missile rockets. They were running low on armor-penetrating rail rounds but thankfully hadn’t emptied those reserves yet. Though at the current rate of fire that was happening in minutes, not hours as was the case at the start of the most recent engagement. Brady’s wing reported the same.
Every kinetic shielding array, save for the aft arrays, had sustained some damage on the Waukesha. They were still active though affording a degree of protection. Several EM shielding arrays were significantly damaged, including several that were knocked out. Engineering teams were working on repairing the blown-out conduits to them throughout the battle.
Three corvettes and a frigate had already been ordered to retreat to deep space to prevent any further damage. The Waukesha’s ablative armor still held together, but virtually every forward-facing panel would need replacing.
The Folly of Icarus had suffered nothing but superficial damage. Her hull may be an ancient design, but she was kitted out with nothing but the latest tech. Her crew was equally adept at maneuvering and attacking the enemy. Any downtime John had he used to analyze their movements in the chaos of the battle and could only come up with one conclusion. He kept it to himself because to speak those words aloud would be demoralizing and sound heretical.
That pirate crew, of the hated Folly of Icarus, was better than John and his crew in every way imaginable. Save perhaps John’s aggressiveness under normal circumstances, but given their dire ammunition stores their pirate-ally was the point guard.
“Another slip space rupture detected,” Ira said, “Twelve more ships, pirates it seems.”
“Fucking hell,” John muttered under his breath, “Deb, tell the Icarus to go after them, we will flank the remaining Triad ships and pinch the new batch.”
John was the lone member from the early shift still working. Damian hadn’t noticed John slipping in any way, so he hadn’t pushed the subject. But the rest of the positions had been slowly replaced over the last two hours. While John hadn’t lost his grasp on command, he could feel the weariness build up within him. John honestly didn’t know if he could last another two hours.
“At least they are hitting us in waves,” Damian said.
John looked at his first officer and nodded.
“Anna, set course two-niner-four, down twelve degrees, maximum burn,” John said confidently, “Walter, we’re going to split their formation, get all weapons ready to blast them to hell.”
“Firing plan locked in, we’re ready to go,” Walter said as he continued to feverishly input commands into his terminal.
The Waukesha veered off its current trajectory and soared over the Folly of Icarus’ aft weapons platform. Her drive core roared in anger as the engines demanded maximum power was diverted to them. She rolled over slightly to maximize the number of weapons that could fire at the pirate ships.
In the distance, there were three pirate vessels. A terribly old cruiser, which barely would be called a frigate by modern standards, and a pair of frigates were flying at them, attempting to line up shots on the Folly.
John marked that as unusual, these enemy pirates had practically thrown themselves at the Icarus. That wasn’t to say that they didn’t get shot at plenty, the Confederate ships all wore the marks of damage proudly, but if a shot could be sent at the Icarus, it was. Confusing as that may have been to John, he wasn’t about to tell the pirates to start shooting more at his ships.
“Commencing attack pattern sierra-mike-seven,” Walter said as he nervously held his hand over a green button on his terminal, “In five… four… three… two… one…”
The distance between the Waukesha and the enemy ships was dwindling rapidly. The railguns and forward lances were already rapidly firing rounds down range. They were going far too fast for evasive maneuvers to make much of a difference. Enemy lasers, lances, and rail rounds struck the bow’s various shielding arrays.
Once again, the more advanced Waukesha proved the superior knife fighter. One pirate vessel blew up in a bright blue ball of plasma when they were several hundred kilometers apart. A second pirate ship suffered not one, but three, through and throughs from one of the Waukesha’s turrets. In some weird bit of happenstance, none of the rounds struck any plasma conduits.
Her armor panels and spine were broken. All atmosphere within the ship violently escaped into the void. Its thrusters and the primary drive stopped suddenly. It began to roll over end over end lifeless in the void.
The third ship didn’t fare much better. Though she did get closer to the Waukesha than her compatriots. That meant little in terms of outcomes. Her fire was erratic and not accurate. The angry Confederate cruiser’s fire was deadly accurate. As the two ships passed one another a plasma blaster cut through the weakened armor and struck the core, causing another miniature supernova in the core.
“That makes three kills,” Ira said from the rear of the bridge, “The Icarus has engaged the new pirate force.”
Damian leaned in and asked John a question quietly, “What if more enemies show up?”
John shrugged, “Likely run, their bigger ships wouldn’t be able to catch up to us.”
“Lieutenant Cohen has engaged the enemy forces as well,” Deb said as she reviewed the text communique.
“Anna, come about, maximum burn helms choice,” John said, “Walter, get whatever torpedoes we have left ready. We’re going to take out this new group’s mothership.”
“We have four left, firing them from the optimal range will likely result in their shooting it down.”
John nodded in agreement, “That would be if we fire at maximum range. Load up the high-ex. Pepper the flat side. We’ll hold fire and launch them at knife range.”
“That’s one way to ensure the bombs find their target,” Walter said, “Switching ammo.”
“Lieutenant Cohen reports destroying two destroyers. The Icarus has taken out a pair of cruisers as well. The enemy pirates are attempting to maneuver away from the ships,” Tessa said from her communications terminal.
“Good,” John said as he watched the tactical readout, “They are going to expose too much of their hull to us. Time to intercept?”
“Twenty-five seconds to optimal railgun range. Add three minutes until we’re in knife range,” Walter said calmly.
“Advise our ships and the Icarus that we will commence a high-ex bombardment on the battlecruiser. Have them stay out of our firing arc. Newton’s first law can be a bitch,” John smiled as he leaned back into his seat.
Moments later the Waukesha began firing its rail turrets at the pirate battlecruiser. At this range, less than half the rounds would find their target, but those that did would begin the process of wreaking havoc with the shields. Their accuracy would increase dramatically as they got closer to the enemy ship. Something that was happening at a hellishly quick pace.
The large pirate ship didn’t realize they were in such an awful position until they began taking firing. They were exposing an awful lot of their ship to the Waukesha. They were getting surrounded, Brady’s group from one side, the Icarus from the front, and coming in from the top was John’s angry ship. The pirates ultimately decided to ignore this new threat, thinking so little of their first volley that they kept the ship angled toward the larger threat.
The pirates would learn the folly of their plan in short succession. The high-explosive rounds at first did little but reduce the shielding strength on their port side by a few percent per volley. The amount of damage done to the shields began increasing as more and more rounds impacted the kinetic shields. Once the shields began fluctuating, the damage could finally be done to the external weapon systems. Armor plates were also peppered with white-hot fragments, but none of the rounds were capable of defeating them.
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That, above all else, was the true aim of this attack. Eliminating anti-missile defenses and, if at all possible, compromising the armor plates. Everything was being done to ensure the torpedoes couldn’t be shot down and that they wouldn’t strike virgin armor plates. While the armor plates were holding strong, it was unlikely they’d survive the initial breaching charge from the modern Confederate torpedo. If the torpedo could breach the hull, it would dive deep into the ship before exploding.
One well-placed torpedo would be all that it would take to take down that battlecruiser. John gave several more orders for what to do after they launched the torpedoes. They’d continue to be running at full burn but the ship would pitch down nearly thirty degrees to avoid as many of the starboard side’s weapons, which would likely be able to get at least two volleys at them before the torpedoes annihilated their target.
The pulses of energy flowing to the railguns could be heard every ten seconds. Dozens of rounds had been fired. No shielding of any kind remained active on the port side of the pirate battlecruiser. John would never know if the pirates were panicking at this point. But he had to presume they were.
Brady’s wing had taken out two more frigates and a destroyer. The Icarus just finished another cruiser, chalking up two more cruiser kills along with a frigate and destroyer.
The battlecruiser was all that remained. And she was exposed and vulnerable. Half of her hull was pot marked and left defenseless. Just before the Waukesha got into knife range, they sent a high-frequency transmission pulse for everyone to see.
‘The FS Amelia reports that her mission has failed.’
John didn’t bat an eyelash, “Walter, torpedoes please.”
“Torpedoes away!” Walter shouted with glee, “The torpedoes are tracking their target.”
“Barbara, hard down, full burn, maximum maneuvering thrusters,” John said.
The Waukesha banked up hard. The bottom drive thruster had its power cut to it while the main drive and bottom thruster continued their full burn. The Waukesha adjusted its course and was slowly angling away from its old vector.
John’s assumption about the pirates could likely be answered when there was a distinct lack of fire directed at them. Had they given up? Internally, John shrugged at that answer. In the end, it didn’t matter if they had given up or not. They were going to be dead men and women momentarily.
In a single blink of an eye after that thought the torpedoes struck the old battlecruiser. Thanks in no small part to the armor plates being moderately compromised, the breaching charges in both torpedoes melted the hull and allowed both torpedoes to pierce deep into the ship.
The first torpedo struck towards the bow half of the ship, four decks and over a hundred meters away from the main bridge. The second struck towards the rear of the ship, forward of its engineering department. The second torpedo exploded first, near a magazine hold for missiles. That generated numerous secondary explosions that ripped through the ass-end of the pirate ship. The first torpedo broke the spine and split the ship into two fragments temporarily.
The secondary explosions reached the drive of the old ship. The core then exploded and a bright blue ball of plasma. Utterly atomizing everything in a radius roughly three times the length of the ship. The last pirate ship was now dead.
“How do our munitions look?” John asked immediately before exhaling.
“Flak cannons are nearly out. C-Rams are critically low or completely out of ammunition. We only have eighty-six high-ex rail rounds and eighty-nine armor penetrating rounds. Our lances need replacing, while they can continue to fire but at reduced output,” Walter said.
“CAG is noting our fighters and bombers are out of munitions and running critically low on fuel. Our drone fleet has been shredded too,” Damian said as he looked at a screen to the right of his chair.
“Barbara, if any more hostiles appear we’re coming about and burning the hell away from here,” John said, “Tessa please open a channel to our ship.”
“It’s all yours Captain.”
“We will be dropping to yellow alert conditions until we know there will be no more reinforcements. But I believe, thanks to the pirate broadcast, that the attack is now at an end. You all performed admirably during the multiple, and most unexpected, waves of pirate vessels. We were fortunate that they came in waves, but when an enemy makes a mistake, it is beholden on us to take advantage of just that. The third shift will take over operations at the top of the hour. The first shift will begin at 04:00, I apologize to the department heads, but our schedules are going to be a bit erratic to make up for the fun we’ve had.”
Damian smirked as he looked at John, “Fun, sir?”
“Yeah? I mean how often do you get to fire big ass guns and shit without having to worry about paying the bill for the trigger time,” John smirked, “Or get in trouble for gunplay.”
Walter smirked, “It is more fun than simulated fire. The caveat of course is simulated fire can’t actually kill you.”
“On that note, what’s the status of our fleet?” John said in a more serious tone.
Ira spoke up, “No hull losses. We lost three bombers and six fighters, but I am unsure what those totals are in other ships. Every ship’s taken noticeable damage.”
“No more extensions to our mission then,” John said with a grim smile, “Have Commander Buckley send me the names of the lost. Damian, I'm sorry for doing this but you’re going to take the third shift. I need your expertise in managing our triage session. Brian will get some rest and take the second shift. Once we get into slip space, we’ll get the two of you swapped back.”
“Uhm sir, I don’t want to be that gal or anything,” Tessa said, “But Lieutenant Cohen’s wing is sending encrypted messages between them.”
John stood up and looked at the tactical screen. Abject horror flashed across his face as he knew instantly what he was trying to do. John’s eyes bulged a bit before he shouted.
“Get me Brady now!”
“No response.”
Brady’s wing was inching closer and closer to the Icarus. If John could see that then surely the Icarus’ crew could as well. Of all times to break his word, now was not it. Doubly so when they had effectively no munitions left to fight.
“Walter, train all our weapons on the Lagos,” John said before looking at Tessa, “Send another message to that asshole.”
“Still nothing sir.”
“Walter, fire a warning lance a kilometer off her bow,” John said sternly.
“Aye aye, sir,” Walter said before saying under his breath, “This turkey shoot is turning into a right proper shitshow.”
One of the Waukesha’s forward lances fired. The bright green light sailed well behind the Icarus. It crossed the Lagos’ bow at nine-hundred eighty-four meters. That seemed to do the trick as Brady’s face appeared in the viewscreen after the Lagos finally accepted the communication request.
“Lieutenant, we can…” Brady began.
“Stand down now. Look at that ship you fucking idiot!” John shouted, “Her kinetic shields are stronger than ours. Her armor isn’t cratered like ours is. We are critically low on ammunition and you want to pick a fight with a battleship class ship that rivals our modern big ships.”
“But we…”
“You will get us all killed. I gave the Icarus my word that I’d let them go free for their assistance in this matter. I doubt very much we’d have been able to take out all those pirates without their assistance. Doubly so for not having suffered any hull losses.”
Brady looked disgusted, “Words mean nothing to pirates.”
“This is true, but as I told you months ago, I’m not sure how to classify the men and women on that ship. What I do know is that honor is something they do hold in high regard. I will be honoring my agreement with them. And you will be standing down, failure to do so will force my hand. I do not want to do that.”
“Lieutenant Lief, this is a moment we may never get again, we have to take it.”
“Brady, I am not the person to play chicken against. This is the last time I’m going to say it. STAND DOWN,” John spun about and walked back to his seat, and sat down.
He stared right at Brady in the viewscreen. The tenseness on the bridge rose when John raised a rand. Walter knew immediately what that meant. He plotted a firing pattern into the forward weapons and locked onto the Lagos, this time on the ship and not off the ship.
“Weapons, stand down,” Brady blinked first.
“Good, it appears common sense has returned to you. Now head to the regrouping coordinates with exuberant abundance,” John said continuing to stare at the monitor, “Cut the line, Tessa.”
Damian whispered, “I’m never playing poker with you.”
“I wasn’t bluffing,” Walter had already queued up both a weapons lock and the remote shut down, “Thankfully I didn’t have to do either. On that note, please unlock their ship. Do track them to ensure they don’t try anything idiotic.”
“Will do, sir,” Walter said grimly.
“Tessa, please raise the Icarus,” John said calmly.
The bridge crew of the Icarus appeared on the screen. They were already imbibing their drinks of choice. Wine, bourbon, and beer could all be seen drunk and enjoyed by the crew. Rene DuBois could be seen holding a large chalice. He took a drink before responding to John.
“I hadn’t thought our one-time allies would have tried to backstab me. It heartens me to know that you are a man of your word.”
“This time you mean. If I could see into the future, I believe I’ll be the one to break my word when I kill you and your ship,” John said coldly.
Rene nodded and grinned, “Yes, I believe that is a possibility. But that is one possibility in a sea of untold trillions of potential outcomes. I believe this is where we part.”
“Yes, you have roughly eighty-five minutes to drive deep into the void away from prying eyes. Reinforcements will be here soon. We’ll be handing over the prisoners we took.”
“On that note, the people on the base were taken alive, no?”
John nodded, “Oh good point. Walter, engage immolation protocols.”
A moment later a bright flash exploded in the distance. The base, that the pirates and locals so desperately fought to retain control over was destroyed. So too was the hollowed-out asteroid that the base was built into. Nothing but dust and ash remained.
“The adults will be tried for the crimes. The children are young enough that our reeducation camps ought to be able to make them productive members of society.”
Rene looked a bit disgusted, “For a man of your caliber and wisdom, I had thought you’d be above such debased things.”
“Then you’d be wrong. The Confederacy needs its citizens to work and be productive, above all else they need to be loyal. We don’t need, nor want, pirates. They are a cancer in our society that needs rooting out.”
“On that note, we can agree, at least to most of the pirates we’ve encountered. Though I believe separating families in the way you seem so willing to do is barbaric.”
“Sometimes evil things need to be done for the greater good,” John said calmly, “I suggest this is where we end things. The Confederate Navy will not give you an official thanks, but I will give you mine for your assistance in these attacks.”
“Till we meet again youngster!” Rene took a drink and smiled before the communication ended.
“Helm set a course to our rendezvous point. It’s time to get ready to go home,” John took a deep breath, “Damian, the bridge is yours.”