The burden of command, p.35
The Burden of Command, page 35
part #14 of Empire Rising Series
Turning from his officers, Jonathan assessed the situation. The four destroyers of Commodore McMillan’s destroyer division were moving to intercept one of the Flex-aor frigate squadrons. A second enemy squadron was trying to pin McMillan between their forces. At present, it seemed like McMillan was content to let his command be trapped. If Jonathan didn’t know McMillan’s orders were to test the Flex-aor’s combat capabilities and not commit to a running battle, he would be starting to get concerned. Four against twelve were not good odds.
“I’m getting targeting data through from Commodore McMillan,” Third Lieutenant Schmidt reported. “We will be focusing our fire on the first three ships of Beta squadron.”
Jonathan nodded as the targets began to flash on the holo display. McMillan had switched targets. Rather than engage the first squadron they were currently closing with, he intended to attack the second group of Flex-aor frigates trying to close with their destroyers. This should be interesting, Jonathan thought as he licked his lips. Beta squadron was further away from McMillan’s destroyers than Alpha. Logically, engaging them made no sense. At least, not as things were. Jonathan couldn’t help but edge forward in his command chair as he anticipated what was coming.
“Course change coming in from Danube, McMillan is turning us towards Alpha squadron,” Fifth Lieutenant Scholes reported from his position at Achilles navigation console. “Turning now.”
As Danube, McMillan’s flagship turned, she also increased her acceleration rate. Achilles and the other two destroyers and McMillan’s division did likewise. The result of the maneuver meant the destroyer division was closing with Alpha much faster. Jonathan realized what McMillan was doing. If Beta wanted to still engage, they would have to increase their acceleration rates. That was, if they could. Moments later and they got an answer. Beta squadron did increase its acceleration rate.
“The readings from their reactors haven’t increased,” Lydia reported.
“They were sandbagging,” Jonathan concluded. The Flex-aor frigates had been hiding their full capabilities. Of course, so too had McMillan’s division.
“We’re increasing acceleration again,” Scholes updated everyone.
This time, Achilles raised her acceleration rate to her maximum. The closing rate with the Flex-aor Alpha squadron increased even more. When Alpha began to react, Jonathan realized just what McMillan was doing. Not wanting to engage four destroyers on their own, Alpha squadron actually began to turn away from Danube to give Beta a chance to catch up. At the same time, Beta squadron increased their acceleration rates again. This time, the energy emissions leaking from the reactors did increase.
“Beta is pushing themselves beyond their normal acceleration rates,” Cortez guessed.
“A trick we still have up our sleeve,” Jonathan commented. “One I think we are about to use,” he predicted. Sure enough, four minutes later, just long enough that the Flex-aor squadrons had fully committed to their new courses, McMillan sent new orders to his destroyers. Pushing their impulse engines and maneuvering thrusters beyond their recommended safety limits, McMillan swung his destroyers around. In spaceship terms, they turned on a dime and suddenly began to charge towards Beta squadron. The Flex-aor were slow to react. It took nearly thirty seconds for Beta to turn their noses in an effort to decelerate. Nearly as much time again passed before Alpha reversed its trajectory to once again try and close with McMillan’s division. Their delay only enhanced the effectiveness of McMillan’s maneuver, for the Imperial destroyers’ advantage in engine power meant they were now closing with Beta squadron far quicker than Alpha could catch up with them. Beta squadron, having already committed so much energy into trying to close with McMillan’s destroyers, was desperately trying to overcome their own momentum that was still taking them towards Danube and Achilles. Even when they pushed their engines harder and increased their acceleration rate by another percentage point, it was clear on the holo display that they were not going to be able to get out of missile range.
“Instructions coming through from Commodore McMillan,” Lydia reported. “We’ll be firing two salvos and then breaking off the engagement. The first salvo will be mark VIII missiles, the second mark VII. We will fire our first salvo when the Flex-aor do.”
“Very well,” Jonathan replied. “Load our tubes accordingly.” With Achilles keeping station with Agamemnon, directly ahead of her, Jonathan had nothing more to do but sit and watch. This was McMillan’s battle. Though if things went awry and Danube was destroyed, Captain Shepherd of Agamemnon was next in the seniority line. She would take command to continue the fight. I just have to fight Achilles as best I can, Jonathan thought to himself. Surprisingly, after everything he had been through, he found himself far less nervous heading into the teeth of an enemy squadron than he would have expected a year ago. In comparison to commanding Python tens of light years away from the nearest Imperial base and having to make decisions on his own that could have wide reaching ramifications, following Agamemnon was relatively straightforward.
“Missile launches!” Schmidt suddenly called out. “Beta squadron has opened fire. Six contacts inbound.”
Jonathan’s stomach clenched. He berated himself for downplaying the situation. Enemy missiles were approaching his ship. You are responsible for all their lives, he told himself as he tried to remember the faces of as many of his crew as he could. Achilles was manned by one hundred and ninety-six Humans. Nearly five times as many people as Jonathan had been in charge of on Python.
“Prepare to alter course,” Jonathan warned Lieutenant Scholes.
“Sir?” Scholes questioned.
Jonathan didn’t have to answer. New orders came in from Danube. Keeping formation with Agamemnon ahead of her, Scholes swung Achilles away from the Beta squadron frigates. Far quicker than before, Beta squadron responded by reducing their deceleration. It wouldn’t be enough however; McMillan had the momentum and acceleration advantage. His destroyers would be able to get out of range before the Flex-aor could fire a second salvo.
“The range of their missiles is impressive,” Lydia said. “They’ve been able to triple it since we last fought them.”
“It’s a good thing we have increased ours even more,” Jonathan replied. Technically, McMillan could have ordered the mark VIII missiles fired several minutes ago, and the even longer range VIIs before that. Doing it this way though, McMillan had determined the maximum range of the Flex-aor missiles. That would serve Home Fleet well in the coming fleet battle. “For once, it looks like we’re going to have the range advantage,” Jonathan added.
“We are being assigned target Sierra six as our primary target, and Sierra five as our secondary,” Schmidt reported. “Tracking Sierra six now…. Opening fire in five seconds,” Schmidt continued… “Firing!”
Achilles joined her sister ships in hurling six mark VIII missiles from her tubes. As soon as they were clear, their engines kicked in and began to move them rapidly towards Beta squadron. Jonathan nodded in satisfaction as he watched both groups of missiles. The mark VIIIs had a significantly higher acceleration rate than the Flex-aor missiles. As a result, they would strike the Flex-aor frigates with a higher closing velocity, making them harder to hit. “Launch our combat drones,” Jonathan ordered as Achilles’ missile tubes began to be reloaded with mark VIIs.
From Achilles’ hull, six drones detached and took up positions above and below the destroyer relative to the incoming missiles. Four of the drones powered up their active sensors allowing Achilles to better triangulate on the Flex-aor missiles. The other two charged up their laser cannons to catch the enemy missiles in a crossfire.
“It would be nice to have a couple of gunships right about now,” Cortez commented. “They could fly out and engage those missiles before they release their ordinance.”
“It would be very nice,” Jonathan agreed. “We’ll just have to do it the old-fashioned way.”
“Missile separations,” Schmidt updated.
Jonathan held his breath as the first stage of the Flex-aor missiles broke apart. This was where things would get interesting. The last time Flex-aor frigates had been seen in action, their smaller caliber missiles had released just four short range missiles. Now, as the six missiles broke apart, they each revealed six more contacts that immediately began to accelerate. Thirty-six enemy missiles were now closing with McMillan’s destroyer division. The next question was, how effective would the Flex-aor missiles ECM be? Thirty-six could either be easy to take out, or could end up running rings around the Imperial destroyers’ defensive fire.
Before Jonathan got an answer to his question, everyone on Achilles’ bridge was able to watch their own missiles strike home. The Flex-aor frigates put out an impressive amount of defensive fire. Yet as far as Achilles’ sensors could tell, they were only firing laser beams. The sheer weight of fire started to take its toll as Imperial missiles were destroyed. However, without more sophisticated area effect weaponry, the Imperial missiles’ ECM was throwing off much of the Flex-aor fire. Evasive maneuvers from the missiles also allowed more of them to close with their targets. Jonathan smiled when five of the twenty-four reached attack range. As soon as they did, they detonated. Funneling the nuclear energy from their detonations through focusing crystals, they hurled fifteen laser beams at the Flex-aor frigates. Not expecting to be attacked so soon, the Flex-aor ships hadn’t begun any evasive maneuvers. Three of them were pierced by energy beams. Two disappeared in blinding explosions. The third began to tumble away from its remaining comrades out of control and breaking apart.
More than one of Achilles’ bridge officers shouted in triumph. Jonathan even punched his fist in the air. One of Achilles’ missiles had scored two laser beam hits on the frigate that was falling out of formation. Even as he watched, the forces from its uncontrolled spin caused the frigate to break into three chunks. Achilles had her first official kill. “Now let’s make sure the same doesn’t happen to us,” Jonathan cautioned to bring his crew back to reality.
“You heard the Captain,” Cortez said sternly. “Focus on the matter at hand. Your lives depend on it.”
The jubilation at scoring their first kill quickly give way to a focused silence as everyone turned back to their own consoles. “Enemy missiles entering outer point defensive range in thirty seconds,” Schmidt reported.
“Open fire at will,” Jonathan responded.
As soon as the missiles came into range, long-range AM missiles were launched from the four destroyers. They had a flight time of one hundred and twenty seconds. Just moments after being launched, the Flex-aor missiles detected them and began carrying out evasive maneuvers. Their maneuver caused the missiles to begin to spread apart. When the AM missiles reached them, five hits were registered. Seconds later, the destroyer’s flak cannons and arc emitters opened up. Filling large areas of space with either shrapnel bursts or electric waves, they took out another eleven missiles. Next, it was the turn of Achilles’ small plasma and laser cannons. Hundreds of bolts and beams were shot out towards the missiles. For a few seconds, Jonathan’s concern began to grow as no hits were registered. The Flex-aor’s ECM was impressive. Yet eventually, one more missile was blown apart. Another quickly followed it. Then more and more started to detonate. When they were reloaded, Achilles’ flak cannons and then arc emitters fired again. Finally, shorter-range high-velocity AM missiles began to be launched.
“We’ve destroyed all our assigned missiles,” Schmidt announced ecstatically.
“Three from Agamemnon are still tracking us,” Lydia warned.
“Take them out!” Jonathan ordered, worried that Schmidt had lost his focus. His fingers twitched as he was tempted to take control of Achilles’ tactical station. It had been his position on Resolute after all. Trust in your people, Jonathan said to himself. As far as he had been able to tell, Schmidt had scored just as well as he might have expected himself to do in the training maneuvers they had carried out.
Achilles threw everything she could at the remaining three missiles. Within seconds, Agamemnon joined in, having destroyed the missiles targeting her. Two were blasted apart. The final one proved more stubborn, however. It dodged everything thrown at it. “Evasive maneuvers!” Jonathan found himself screaming.
Achilles’ engines roared and everyone’s restraints tightened around them as Scholes threw Achilles into a corkscrew to throw off the missile’s aim. The maneuver met with partial success. The missile missed scoring a direct hit. Sensing its failure, the missiles’ warhead detonated it as close to Achilles as it could. Alarms blared in Jonathan’s ear as thermonuclear energy washed over his command. As he was thrown around in his command chair, he feared the worst. Yet unlike on Python, the bridge’s lights didn’t fail. Rather than get worse, the alarms quickly silenced themselves. “Damage report?” Jonathan demanded as soon as he stopped being jostled.
“Nothing to report Captain,” Cortez responded instantly. “All systems are reporting normal. The explosion was a proximity hit; our gaseous shields deflected most of the explosion wave. Our armor absorbed the rest.”
Jonathan pulled up a live feed of Achilles’ systems. He had to see it himself to believe it. Sure enough, no damage was being reported. He shook his head as he silently thanked whatever scientists had come up with the idea to adapt the gaseous shields. He knew they had been strengthened considerably since the Karacknid war. Python hadn’t had the shields, a proximity hit like the one Achilles had just suffered probably would have ended the pirate destroyer. It could have crippled us, Jonathan was certain, if not for the shields.
“Commodore McMillian is requesting a status update,” Rutherford reported.
“Inform him we are undamaged and battle ready,” Jonathan replied.
“He has acknowledged Captain,” Rutherford said.
“We’re getting new targeting data,” Schmidt announced. “Firing our mark VIIs in thirty seconds.”
Jonathan smiled as he pictured the Flex-aor’s shock when Achilles opened fire once again. The mark VIIs had eighty percent more range than the VIIIs. If he wanted to, Macmillan could have engaged the Flex-aor frigates without ever letting them get into range to fire their own missiles. The Flex-aor that had survived the Imperial destroyer’s first salvo probably thought themselves safe. If so, they had been wrong. Over the course of thirteen minutes, the mark VIIs raced towards the Flex-aor frigates. With a less powerful engine, they didn’t quite reach the same closing velocity of the VIIIs but they had other tricks. First, just two minutes outside of the Flex-aor’s point defense’s range, the first stage of the mark VIIs disengaged their engines. Four smaller missiles were released from the missiles’ forward section. Gunning their engines, the smaller missiles accelerated with far greater thrust. They were also equipped with advanced maneuvering thrusters. When the Flex-aor did open fire with their defensive lasers, the Imperial missiles twisted and weaved with great flexibility. However, not large enough to be armed with focusing crystals, the small missiles had to dodge every defensive beam fired at them as they closed to point-blank range with the enemy frigates. Many were destroyed. Yet several punched through the Flex-aor defenses to strike each of the frigates. Though small, their warheads were antimatter warheads. As they struck the frigates and detonated, they each released more than enough antimatter to wipe out their targets. Seconds after the explosions began, all three Flex-aor frigates were no more.
“Six down and not a scratch on any of us,” Cortez said as she flashed Jonathan and then Achilles’ other officers a grin. “That’s not a bad start.”
“No it’s not,” Jonathan said, sharing his First Officer’s grin. As he looked beyond the other forward Flex-aor frigate squadrons, his grin quickly faded. Destroying six Flex-aor ships hardly made more than a scratch in their strength. As Jonathan glanced back to Home Fleet, what was left of his enthusiasm began to fade. His father’s fleet was still outnumbered ten to one. We’re going to need a lot more similar victories if we’re going to survive this, he couldn’t help but feel.
Chapter 30
Despite being focused on only a handful of systems, and not gaining widespread public support, the attempted secession of 2508 did significant damage to the Imperial Fleet’s supply chains and construction schedules. Those ships would end up being dearly missed in the years that immediately followed.
-Excerpt from Empire Ascendant 3015 AD.
IS Oblivion
“That worked well Admiral,” Davenport commented as the last of the destroyer divisions pulled back from their engagements. “They have improved their capabilities, but they haven’t overtaken us.”
“Which is just as well for us,” James replied. “I guess we have something to thank the Karacknid War for.” Of the sixteen destroyers James had sent forward, only one had been lost. In contrast, the four destroyer divisions had scored twenty-three kills. “Any damage reports coming yet from the destroyers?” He couldn’t help but ask. Everyone on Oblivion’s bridge now knew his son commanded Achilles. There was no point him trying to hide his concern. He knew the destroyer had suffered a proximity hit.
“They have just started to come in over the last thirty seconds,” Oblivion’s First Lieutenant reported. “Achilles reports all systems functioning as normal. She also has one confirmed kill.” James nodded to the officer, unable to hide all the relief from his face. He even smiled a little. His son was already proving the trust Davenport had placed in him was merited.
“The destroyer divisions are pulling back to join us,” Davenport said. “What are your next orders Admiral? It seems that we out range them with both in mark VIIs and VIIIs. Operation Slash and Burn?”
James considered Davenport’s question for several seconds. The Flex-aor already had several stronger squadrons of light cruisers, destroyers, and frigates moving ahead of their main fleet to replace the frigate squadrons that had been damaged or destroyed. He was tempted to push forward his own reinforced squadrons to engage them. If he could continue taking out their ships at a ratio of twenty-three to one, there was a chance he could whittle away the Flex-aor fleet strength before it ever reached New Delhi. Yet he was certain the Flex-aor would never allow him to keep engaging their ships with forces of equal numbers. They had the numerical superiority; it was only a matter of time before they used it. And besides, that wasn’t why James had his fleet out beyond the support of New Delhi’s battlestations. He was here to buy time for New Delhi’s defenses to be strengthened. Every hour he could buy, more defense satellites and other makeshift weaponry that most of the fleet’s engineers were working on could be brought online. “Operation Slash and Burn it is,” he said with a nod.
