Incursion at elea statio.., p.13
Incursion at Elea Station, page 13
"I've highlighted the engines," I said, causing them to throb on the screen. "Like Intrepid, the Mendari engines have some of the thickest armor anywhere on the ship. This is to prevent the ship from being stopped by an attack directed at those engines."
"All is lost," Perifid said.
"Yes, how will we find treasure?" Berifid added.
"Guys, stop," I said. "All is not lost. We've identified these locations on the hull as being the channels in which energy is transferred to the engines." Bright green rectangles highlighted narrow sections of the hull. "These sections are equally armored, but before you panic again," I held up my hand to stop the expected chatter, "we've identified the sections next to those channels as being ideal for disabling the Mendari sloops. It requires precision shooting, but if done correctly, this could be easily accomplished."
"Would they shoot at us?" Tonifi asked, not quite buying the whole story. I smiled. She might be the only sane one in the group.
"Would it ruin the treasure?" Perifid asked.
I made a decision. I'd make the same choice again in similar circumstances, but I did feel it was questionable. I decided the truth wasn't something the Musi could handle.
"There is no treasure at that location," I said. "At least when we took the last Mendari sloop there was none. And no, we'd angle the ship so they do not have the capacity to shoot at us."
Berifid clapped his hands together joyfully. "Show us, most brilliant of all captains."
"Give me a minute." I reconfigured the simulation once again so the Mendari ships would appear to shoot away from Intrepid – and only after we'd been in combat for a few moments. I would record the actual hits to Intrepid for future analysis.
"We are ready, glorious Captain," Berifid said when I finally looked up.
"Yes, lead us to treasure," Perifid added.
Jerifi wasn’t willing to be left out. "Our nests will be lined with gold."
Only Tonifi was silent.
"We're starting," I said. "Fire control, this is the Captain."
The four Musi sat staring at the screens where suddenly four Mendari ships had appeared. The ships approached but the Musi did nothing.
"Hold simulation," I ordered. "Berifid, when the captain addresses fire control, you need to answer, this is fire control, go ahead. Do you understand?"
"Ah, yes, Captain," he answered. "That part is always something of a surprise to me."
"Can you do it?"
"Yes, yes."
"Restart simulation." I waited a moment for the ships to return to their original positions. "Fire control, this is the captain."
Berified looked at me and raised his bushy eyebrows, his eyes widening. I nodded and mouthed to him that he should respond.
"Captain most majestic, this is Berifid within the safest of all locations, fire control," he said.
"Fire control, you are to engage all enemy ships," I said, ignoring the Musi who were all staring at me. They didn’t move or do anything to address the incoming ships.
"Hold simulation. Why aren't you shooting?" I asked.
"You need to fly Intrepid," Berifid said, "We will not survive if you stay within fire control."
I closed my eyes. It was going to be a very long afternoon and indeed a very long couple of days.
"Do you think we stand a chance of the Musi actually staying at their stations?" Noah asked.
Prajna, Tabby, Jonathan, Noah, Zaida and I sat around the narrow wardroom table eating our last meal together before dropping from hard-burn when the real excitement would start. Ordinarily, I would have invited Berifid to join us, but the Musi had proven they couldn't be trusted with full mission knowledge.
"I can't believe you're actually going to change the Musi’s vid-feed so they can't see the Mendari firing back," Tabby said. "They'll have no idea which ships are causing the most problems." Her confusion made sense as it went against both of our morals to hold back data from crew.
"If they so much as get a whiff of someone firing at us, they won't be firing back at all," I said and looked to change the subject. "How'd you fare with your fire team? I ran into Matt Matt last night. He looked beat."
Tabby furled her brow. "Beat like tired? Or beat like defeated?"
"Tired."
"That makes sense," she said. "We've been playing Hunt the Mendari. I ordered them all to sleep the last eight hours, so they'd be fresh. I checked about an hour ago and I don't think any of 'em made it to sleep."
"First time into real combat will do that," I said. "Everyone clear on the sequence of events?"
"High flyover of the station. If it's clear, we drop red team on the west end and blue team on the east end. If we flush out any bogies, then we engage with extreme malice," Tabby reeled off. "Of course, we all know that plan will go to crap as soon as we drop from hard-burn."
"Our priorities are to get fuel first. If that's not possible, we do what we can to disable the mining platform," Noah said.
"I don’t peeps the brainy in bangin' the platform," Prajna said. "No joy joy for the engines if we be doin' that."
"I understand. It'd be a tough loss," I said. "Best I can tell, the only reason Mendari keep coming back to Mhina is because it’s an easy source of fuel.
"And tails 'twixt legs we burning for home only slow as can be," she said.
"That's right," I said. "Without fuel, it'll take us ten times as long to get back to Faraji, which is why we need to be successful. But we can't trade lives to gain that success. No heroes on this trip. We can hunker down on Faraji if necessary and come up with another plan."
"Captain, you asked to be reminded when we were five minutes from breaking hard-burn," Jonathan said. "It is five minutes."
"Good luck, everyone," I said. "All hands, to your stations. Berifid, please bring your family to fire control. We will resume the simulation practice again."
Tabby looked at me as if I'd grown a second head. "You're telling them this is a simulation? There's no reset here."
"It's worse," I said. "I promised them a share of the spoils on every ship they disable. You can't believe just how precise their fire has become."
Entering the bridge, I settled into the pilot's chair. For our initial approach, I'd take the pilot's seat. If the Mendari had left ships behind, I wanted control while we dealt with them. In reality, we had no idea what we were about to run into. I was just glad it was finally go-time.
12
Boarding Party
We dropped from hard-burn ten thousand kilometers from Elea's mining platform. I would have preferred to drop closer, but the platform was well inside of Elea's atmosphere and the force on Intrepid's armor would have torn us apart. As it was, the last few hours had been bumpy, the thickening atmosphere resisting our approach. Entering the stratosphere, however, was a two-way street, as the engines benefited from a more efficient direct-thrust mode.
"All teams, report." Nervously, I scanned system statuses again even though I'd just checked them only minutes previous.
"Captain, I have two heavy sloops at a thousand kilometers."
Jonathan's announcement drew my attention to the forward vid screen. Two blocky, rectangular ships had powered up and were on an intercept course. While technically the same class of ship as Hotspur, they were fifty percent larger and bristled with weaponry. Their positions suggested they'd been lying in wait for us, blacked out, making their presence nearly impossible to detect while we were under full burn. As it was, their delta-v with Intrepid was considerable. We were still decelerating, ratcheting the difference down quickly.
"Glidys intercept seven minutes," Prajna stated. Blue lines appeared atop Jonathan's display and showed the future point at which our paths would intersect.
"Noah, Tabbs, I need you to stand by in fire control," I said. "Tell the Musi that you're there just to observe the simulation and that the captain is proud of their hard work."
"They can't be that dumb, Love," Tabby said. "We just dropped from hard-burn."
"Sell it for me," I said. "We need them. Their shot accuracy is off the charts. Tell them I've got a special prize for whoever disables a ship."
"It'll never work."
I shrugged. "And that's why I need you and Noah standing by."
"Now, that makes sense," she said. "What about Praj?"
Tabby and I had drilled with both Prajna and Noah. The young Pogona had extremely fast reflexes and a higher hit ratio than Noah. On the other hand, Noah's shot planning was methodical and strategic. The two complimented each other well as combat partners.
"Need someone to sail Intrepid if this goes the way I think it will," I said.
As Noah and Tabby pushed through the hatch that separated fire control from the bridge, I received a message linkup from Hornblower. The distance between our ships was far enough that we would experience a forty-second delay in each direction.
"Cap, by the time you receive this message, you'll have discovered the two lurkers at the location embedded in this message. They're heavy sloops, be careful. If they haven't revealed themselves, you'll know what to do," Marny said. "We dropped from hard-burn twenty minutes ago to gather sensor data in advance of your arrival. We're getting strong energy signals from the east end of the mining platform. We've detected three gun emplacements and I've attached my recommendation for boarding. There's no way Intrepid will be able to completely hide from the platform weapons, but if you're fast, Intrepid should escape with limited damage. I'd recommend keeping all crew within fire control or the bridge, however, as they're both heavily armored. The smaller Mendari fleet is six ships with two sloops and four cutters. They're moving faster than we anticipated. You'll only have an hour before they arrive."
"Frak. How did we lose five hours?" I said under my breath. "Jonathan, how far out is the main Mendari fleet?"
With a wary eye, I checked the sloops that were closing on us.
"The main fleet will arrive in one hundred four hours. That is two hours in advance of Hornblower," he answered. "We anticipate Hornblower will adjust original burn plan to make up the difference, which will leave her with nine minutes of fuel at a combat burn."
I sighed. Marny had made a good call to stop and gather intel. The fact that the intel ended up not being overly useful was the price we paid for the gambit. She'd lost valuable time that would put Hornblower in jeopardy if our raid on the mining platform was unsuccessful. She was gambling everything on our success.
In the back of my head, I could hear her chiding me to stay in the moment and focus on the task at hand. Little could be done about what might occur in a hundred hours. I had to deal with the here and now.
"Captain, why spideys not use bangers from the mining platform?" Prajna asked. "No brainy be tusselin' wit Treps in the darks."
We had less than a minute before the sloops would overtake our position. Prajna's question burned brightly in my mind as I gracefully flipped Intrepid end for end. We'd discussed at length the obvious tactical advantage for whoever controlled the mining platform and its defensive systems. Indeed, that was the reason we'd pushed so hard to arrive before the Mendari fleet. Why would these two ships leave the protection of the platform? Something was off, but just what it was would have to be a question for later.
"Jonathan, start the simulation in fire control, please," I said.
"Yes, Captain," he said.
There are a variety of common formations in space combat. Perhaps the most confusing is when two large fleets meet on the field of battle. Fortunately, our little game of two-on-one wouldn't be that. No, we had two choices. We could turn and run, in which case the faster sloops would catch up and flank us like wolves chasing down a buffalo. The other choice was to turn, face the incoming ships and duke it out. I'd already made the decision by flipping. We wouldn’t be running. The sloops would get a nice strafing run on us, but I could limit the time they had to attack by pouring on the speed, which I did.
"Liam, you're moving too fast," Tabby said. "We'll never hit them."
The sloops were starting to separate as we closed the gap, their intent to fly by on opposite sides of Intrepid clear. The move was smart and would give them both unfettered shooting lanes. This wasn't my first rodeo and so, at the last moment, I pulled up and arced dangerously into the path of the closest sloop. If the Mendari were suicidal, aiming for them could be a colossally bad move. However, playing kamikaze would be good way to get the cards right out there on the table – that is, if we made it past first contact.
"Damage on starboard flank," Prajna announced as Intrepid shuddered from impact. "We've lost an armor panel. If they hit there again, we could lose engine two." I was surprised by her complete lack of slang, but my attention was pulled away as I realized we'd taken no shots at either ship.
"Mendari accuracy below twenty percent," Jonathan added.
"Noah, what's going on in there? We just passed two ships without taking a shot," I said.
"They're arguing," Noah said. "Do you want us to take controls?"
"Frak, no, hang on," I said. "Prajna, you have the helm."
"Oh, frak," she said, her pale skin turning even paler.
"Are you up to it? Build up a head of steam and flip. We want another fast pass," I said.
The Mendari had yet to flip, which I still felt worked to our advantage. The fact that we hadn't returned fire was probably confusing them.
"Aye, aye. Clocks for Praj to be chiney," she said. "I have the helm, Captain."
The ship's AI recognized the sequence and transferred control. Prajna's doubt in the heat of the moment concerned me, but I'd set something in motion and would see it through. My gut clenched as I jumped from my seat and raced into the hallway.
While it would have been more expedient to enter fire control from the bridge, I was concerned the Musi might pick up crosstalk from the bridge crew.
"Liam? What are you doing?" Noah said as I entered fire control from the main passageway.
"How's the run going?" I asked, doing my best to look calm and mostly uninterested.
The Musi, still arguing, quieted a little as they listened for Noah's assessment which they certainly had to know would not be complimentary.
Noah's face was pinched, like he was ready to explode and take the Musi with him. Fortunately, Tabby stepped in. "Apparently, the Musi believe only the person who gets the kill shot will get the reward. Nobody wants to help their neighbor."
The ship shook and my ears popped as something penetrated the hull.
"Hang on a sec, I think Prajna must have broken that seal she was working on," I said, smiling as serenely as I could manage. I placed a hand on my ear to accentuate that I was talking over comms. "Praj, what's going on? Maybe you could stop that for a couple of minutes? We're in the middle of a simulation."
"Captain, we've had to seal the portside lower quarters. The Mendari are using some sort of explosive energy charge that's rather effective against our armor. We can't take much more of this," Jonathan said.
I nodded. "Good to know. Maybe we'll cancel the simulation in that case," I said.
"Thank the stars," Noah said, reaching for Berifid to pull him from the fire control station where he sat.
"Sorry to your family, Berifid. Apparently, Prajna can't stop just now. And since you can't operate under these conditions, we'll have to cancel the rewards. Maybe I'll come up with something later," I said.
"No," Jerifi said. "We want the treasure you've promised."
"How can I get you to stop bickering and run the simulation then?" I asked.
"What if you make it a team payoff?" Tabby said. "Berifid and Perifid against Tonifi and Jerifi. Killing shot gets double payout on a ship and most damage gets a single share."
"Would that do it?" I asked.
Noah had already moved Berifid from his chair and was lining up on the retreating sloops. I swallowed hard as I saw Intrepid turn back to combat. I'd join Noah at another firing station if I couldn't get past this issue with the Musi. My heart thudded in my chest as time slipped away. I was certain Tabby, Noah and I would make a difference in the fight, but the fact that the sloops were hitting so hard was something I hadn't expected.
"Make him move," Berifid cried, tugging at Noah's vac-suit. "It's not fair."
"Will you fight? I'm only going to let the simulation take one more pass," I said. "And then I'm not offering any treasure."
"I'll do it," Berifid whined. He was soon joined by cries from his family.
"Noah, let's give them one more chance. What do you say?"
"I say it's the dumbest idea ever," he said, but allowed Berifid to pull him from the chair.
I held my breath as we tilted down the line. My stomach fluttered as I realized, for once, I would have no direct influence on success of the battle. I'd placed responsibility into the hands of others. The craziest thing was, I believed it was the right thing to do.
"Roll twenty degrees starboard," Tonifi squeaked.
"Captain?" Prajna queried. I'd purposefully separated fire control tactical channel from the bridge crew as I couldn't afford to have the jittery Musi realize my ruse. I traced the comm path and discovered that Tonifi had established a comm channel between her, Prajna and myself.
"Do it," I said.
"Thank you," Tonifi squeaked.
"No fair," Berifid complained.
My heart sank as I imagined the worst. Tonifi had asked for a change in ship angle to advantage her team. It was too late to change the order and I watched as we passed the two sloops for a third time. This time, fire lanced out from Intrepid's turrets and stitched deep lines into not one, but both sloops.
As with most combat in space, the fight ended abruptly. The lead sloop exploded brilliantly, and its armor clattered harmlessly against Intrepid as the shockwave sent a vibration through the entire ship.
"You lose!" Berifid cackled. "You destroyed your ship and we disabled ours."
Tonifi glanced in my direction and I looked over. While she wouldn't completely make eye contact, I saw understanding in her tiny black eyes. I nodded to her and mouthed my thanks. She smiled wanly and turned back to her station.
