Echoes of War Box Set, page 27
part #1 of Echoes of War Series
“Godspeed, XO,” the voice of the master chief said through her commlink.
“Thanks, Master Chief. I’ll see you on the flip side,” she said with false bravado.
Sheila pulled on the lever with all her might; it didn’t move. Picking up a fallen piece of pipe, she used it as a lever, wedging it into the area between the lever and the back of the panel. Slowly and almost imperceptibly at first, it began to move. Yellow warning lights flashed, and a klaxon sounded, indicating imminent exposure to vacuum. Of course I forgot my safety harness. She looked around wildly, groping through the smoke, looking for something—anything—to hold on to. As the doors creaked open, she flung herself on the fallen catwalk and held on as tightly as possible.
When the doors had gotten roughly halfway open, the forcefield that protected them snapped off. The effect was instantaneous. Smoke, fire, and the remaining air in the room raced out through the opening into the vacuum of space. Warheads, pieces of metal, Mathews’ body; all of it flashed by her. For a few moments, she thought that by a miracle, she might just survive. Then the catwalk, which had been wedged in tightly, ripped free. As the doors passed by and she entered the blackness, her mind still functioned.
I guess this is it. A tear rolled down her face, freezing instantly as her mind ran through the memories she wouldn’t be able make, the child she’d never have, the love of her life she would never make memories with. She hoped David would find the video she made for him just before taking the XO position on the Rabin. Maybe he’ll understand how much I care for and love him. In the seconds just before Sheila passed, she silently repeated the Lord’s Prayer to herself and hoped that there was truly something more for her in heaven.
34
While the Lion and her crew were busy battling the League capital ships, Amir and his wing had been making short work of the remaining League bombers and fighters. Though the losses from his squadrons were much higher than he would expect to see in a fight between nearly equal numbers of League and CDF craft, his wing had finally come out on top. Turning his attention back to the League’s capital ships, it was clear from the chatter on the command channel that the Lion had taken significant damage, and that she needed backup from her own small craft. Amir pulled up the integrated command operations picture in his HUD and studied the battlefield for a moment. Cueing his communications net, he spoke into the mic, “Tulleny, how are you doing?”
“Just peachy, command.” Tulleny’s clipped British accent came through Amir’s headset loud and clear.
“Form up the bombers; we’re going to hit the nearest League cruisers. They’re identified as Masters Three and Four in your HUD,” Amir said. “The Reapers will cover the bomber flight on its way in and engage point defense emplacements with our neutron cannons.”
“Understood, Reaper One. When we get back, you owe us all a drink.”
Amir smirked inside of his flight helmet. “You know I don’t drink.”
“There’s a first time for everything.”
While the battle raged outside of the ship between Amir’s wing and the League ships, a different battle was being fought within the engineering spaces of the Lion of Judah. Hanson struggled to get the forward shield generators back online and recharged with energy due to damage to the Lion’s energy conduits. As he was unable to route power to the proper capacitor, he slammed his fist into the console in frustration.
Dr. Hayworth took notice and laid a hand on Hanson’s shoulder. “Calm yourself, Major. This amounts to our first test of the reactor and power system in a real-world situation. Problems are bound to happen.”
“Doctor, to belabor stating the obvious, we’ve got to get power to the forward shield generator. I don’t see how to do that with the number of relays currently blown,” Hanson said.
“Simple, we reroute the power around the damaged relay using the junction control panels. They function much like large power supply breakers.”
“One problem; those compartments are flooded with high levels of radiation.”
Hayworth shrugged, incredible calm showing through. “Well, there’s a solution for that…sure, we might get some kind of strange cancer twenty years from now, but it beats spending our lives in a League gulag.”
“I’ll get a corpsman down here to administer treatment before we enter the lockers,” Hanson said, and punched up the medical bay on his wrist device. “Medical bay, this is Major Hanson. We need a corpsman with radiation exposure medication to the main engineering room ASAP.”
A second later, Hanson’s wrist device crackled. “Yes, sir, we’re sending someone down now, sir.”
Hanson tapped on his engineering tablet, pulling up a schematic of the ship. “We will need three more volunteers, Doctor. I’ll take the one closest, but we need to reroute four different relay points at the same time.”
Hayworth looked over Hanson’s shoulder for a moment. “Only two more. I’ll take this locker,” he said as he pointed to one of the relay lockers furthest out.
As the two men talked, a couple of contractors who had been listening in walked over. “Sir,” one of them began, addressing Hanson. “We helped configure those lockers last week. More than anyone here, we understand how they’re laid out. We’ll take the other two.”
“I can’t allow you to do that,” Hanson stated, looking at the name badge of the man who did the talking. “Tomilison. It’s too great of a risk for a civilian.”
Tomilison’s face turned to a grimace. “We can handle it, Major. Time is of the essence, and we know exactly what to do.”
Hanson looked at Hayworth, hoping for his approval. Hayworth’s demeanor, however, was inscrutable. “Okay. Take the other two lockers.”
As the two men nodded and began to walk off, Hanson called after them. “Godspeed!”
Hayworth cleared his throat. “I can’t stand that saying.”
“It doesn’t hurt you to hear it said, Doctor.”
“It annoys me.”
“Why don’t we focus on the job at hand and debate religion later?” Hanson replied with a forced smile. “Now let’s get this done.”
35
While Amir and his flight group were busy taking the fight to the League, David had the task of waiting until the shields were recharged, and the fire was out in the forward magazine. Of all the things I’m good at, waiting isn’t one of them. With nothing else to do but monitor the situation while Amir’s fighters struck at the League ships, he studied the tactical plot and made plans to reengage the League ships as soon as the Lion was able. He also pondered if Seville had an elite group of crews that he could call on, as the League ships currently opposing them appeared to be far from the poor opponents that he was used to fighting. It all pointed to an elaborate plot to drive a stake into the heart of the Terran Coalition. If the Ark Royal had engaged this battle group, it would have been destroyed, but at least with the Lion, we’ve got a chance to win.
Looking over at the empty XO chair, David prayed Sheila was having success fighting the fire. Ruth’s voice cut into his mental reverie. “Conn, TAO! Friendly fast movers have destroyed Master Four.”
David’s head snapped back to the tactical plot. “Acknowledged, TAO! What’s the status of the remaining contacts?”
“Our fighters are engaging Master Three currently, sir, though roughly twenty percent of them have been disabled or destroyed.”
David frowned; a twenty-percent loss rate among small craft was very high, though it stood to reason that the League fighters were also manned by elite pilots, so perhaps that rate of loss wasn’t as bad as it seemed. Hopefully, our search and rescue teams can save our pilots after this battle.
Taylor spoke up from his station. “Conn, communications. Damage control reports that the fire in the forward magazine is out, and the fire relight watch has been set.”
Inwardly, David breathed a heavy sigh of relief. Way to go, Sheila. That’s going to be worth a nice bottle of something. He turned his attention back toward the tactical plot. As he watched, one of the icons for the League cruisers winked out.
“Conn, TAO! Master Three has been destroyed,” Ruth said in near real time.
“Acknowledged, TAO,” David said, watching to see what the two remaining Rand class cruisers would do; they formed up near the League dreadnaught but made no attempt to move forward to engage the Lion. He believed that they were attempting to provide point defense covering fire for the Destruction.
David’s personal communication panel blinked, an incoming message being received from engineering. Punching a button to open the channel, Hanson’s voice was heard. “Conn, engineering. Forward shields are back online and will recharge over the next thirty seconds.”
He couldn’t quite make it out, but Hanson’s breathing sounded labored. “Understood. Overall power plant status?”
“We had radiation leakage through our coolant system and some of the power conduits that overloaded. Several of us, including myself, have been treated for radiation exposure. No causalities, sir.”
At the mention of radiation leakage, David’s mind went into overdrive at yet another problem. “Understood, Major. Cohen out.”
Glancing up from his console, he looked forward, past Ruth and Hammond. “Conn, TAO. Shield status?”
“Forward shields at eighty-five percent of charge, sir. We’re ready to engage the generator.”
“TAO, raise forward shields. Navigation, intercept course on Master One.” Pausing for a moment, he added, “Let’s end this.”
David looked toward Taylor. “Communications, get me Colonel Amir.”
“Aye aye, sir, Colonel Amir patched into your console.”
David spoke into his mic. “Colonel Amir, how’s your wing holding up?”
Amir’s distorted voice crackled through the speaker. “We’re hanging together, sir. About to take another run at the Leaguers.”
“Stand by on that, Amir. We’re going to engage the remaining League vessels. The TAO will vector you in as we begin our assault.”
“Understood, Colonel Cohen.”
“Lion out,” David said, clicking off the communications channel.
“Conn, navigation. Intercept course laid in for Master One, sir,” Hammond interjected.
David absorbed her report. “TAO, how many Hunter and Starbolt missiles do we have left in our forward missile launch array?”
“Twelve Hunters, one hundred Starbolts, sir,” Ruth said.
David pondered for a moment; with only twelve Hunters remaining, he would have to be judicious in their use. Starbolt missiles were basically fusion warheads with a rudimentary LIDAR-based tracking system. They were great weapons but were far more susceptible to jamming and point defense. Despite their shortcomings, he reasoned, they could fire the entire salvo off in one shot, overwhelming the point defense systems of the League’s flagship. First things first. Gotta take out those Rands and clear the battle space.
“Navigation, flank speed.”
“Conn, navigation. Flank speed, aye,” Hammond said crisply.
“TAO, firing point procedures, Master Two, magnetic-cannons and neutron beams.”
“Conn, TAO. Firing solutions set for Master Two.”
“Match bearings, shoot, all weapons,” David said as he glanced down at the tactical plot to see the effect of the weapons’ release. Magnetic cannon rounds thundered away from the Lion, the energy release nudging the ship slightly to the side, followed up by neutron beam strikes. The League Rand class cruiser took significant damage. With most of its consorts destroyed, it was unable to retreat behind the shields of the other vessels.
“Conn, TAO. Master Two has sustained significant damage,” Ruth confirmed before her LIDAR reading showed movement by the League ships. “Conn, TAO! Aspect change, Master One, Two, and Five. Sub-light engine light-off. They’re moving toward us at flank speed. Enemy vessels are firing, sir.”
David’s eyes were glued to the tactical plot; he knew that he had to defeat the League ships in detail. As plasma charges impacted against the Lion’s shields, the ship shuddered and rocked. “TAO, firing point procedures, Master Two. Target its engines and weapons with all forward magnetic cannons and neutron beams.”
“Conn, TAO. Firing solutions set for Master Two.”
“Match bearings, shoot, all weapons.”
More rounds shot out of the mag-cannons and raced toward the Rand class cruiser, slamming into its weakened shields. The first few were stopped, and their kinetic energy absorbed before the cruiser’s shield failed. The rest of the shells slammed into the vessel’s hull, causing multiple explosions. Ruth deftly followed up with neutron beams, which speared the stricken vessel from one end to the other, causing massive secondary explosions. A moment later, the League cruiser exploded into a large cloud of debris.
“Conn, TAO! Master Two destroyed, sir!” Ruth nearly shouted, the tone of her voice crossing from professional to almost gleeful.
David had noticed that Ruth really seemed to enjoy destroying League ships at times. He made a mental note to discuss that privately with her at some point before looking back down to his tactical plot. “Good shooting, TAO,” he said, dialing it down a bit. “TAO, firing point procedures, Master Five. Magnetic cannon and neutron beams.”
David realized that this was becoming something of a rote engagement; the Lion clearly held the edge against smaller League ships. She’d taken a beating, though. His status display showed that the Lion’s forward shields dipped below sixty percent of their energy rating. Doing some quick math, he estimated they only had five or six more salvos before the forward shields collapsed again. The last Rand had to be neutralized quickly, and he ran multiple scenarios through his head on methods to disable the Destruction without a protracted fight.
“Conn, TAO, firing solutions set for Master Five.”
“TAO, match bearings, shoot, all weapons!” David said almost automatically, his battle rhythm kicking in.
As the Lion stabbed at the remaining Rand with its weapons suite, incoming fire from both League ships impacted the Lion’s shield grid. Sectors overloaded and failed, leaving other parts of the grid to compensate for their loss. Soon, the overworked shield generator would fail again and leave the Lion defenseless along her forward arc.
“Conn, TAO. Aspect change, Master Five. Master Five has taken position out of line of fire behind Master One.”
“Acknowledged, TAO,” David said, looking back to his plot. So this is it. All or nothing, and success depended on his next course of action. “Communications, get me Colonel Amir.”
“Colonel Amir is now linked into your comm panel, sir,” Taylor said after a moment.
“Go ahead, Colonel Cohen,” Amir’s voice crackled.
David spoke into the microphone on his chair. “Amir, do you have enough anti-ship munitions left to effectively engage the point defense systems on the Destruction?”
There was a pause on the line before Amir’s voice came through. “Many of my bombers are Winchester, sir.” Winchester was the code phrase for “out of ammunition.” “But we have enough to degrade the Destruction’s point defense emplacements on one arc.”
David looked to Ruth. “Okay, this is what we’re going to do, everyone. We only get one shot, so pay attention. Navigation, lay in a course that takes us to point-blank range of Master One, then takes us on a parallel course to her. TAO, we’re going to engage Master One with our magnetic cannons and our neutron beams as we approach, fire a final broadside into her at point-blank range, and then we’re going to launch every last missile we have in our forward VRLS array into that ship. While we’re doing this, Colonel Amir and his wing will engage Master One and destroy as many point defense emplacements as possible, to ensure enough of our missiles get through to knock Master One out. Everyone clear on their part?”
There were nods from Ruth and Hammond; Amir’s voice came through loud and clear. “Yes, sir!”
“Colonel Amir, proceed to attack Master One’s point defense emplacements.”
“Aye, sir. Amir out.”
“Conn, navigation, course laid in as ordered,” Hammond called out.
“Navigation, engage full speed.”
“Engaged, sir.”
The inertial force of the massive ship moving forward could be felt throughout the vessel; even with inertial dampening fields, David was still pressed back into his seat just a bit. “TAO, firing point procedures, Master One, magnetic cannons and neutron beams.”
“Conn, TAO, firing solutions set.”
“TAO, match bearings, shoot all weapons,” David ordered, looking down at his tactical plot, showing the remaining fighters from Amir’s wing engaging Master One. Over the next few minutes, multiple salvos were exchanged between the Lion and the Destruction. While Amir’s fighters took a beating, they succeeded at knocking down many point defense emplacements along the side of the Destruction that David planned to assault with one hundred and twelve missiles.
“TAO, firing point procedures, Master One, magnetic cannons, neutron beams, and all remaining missiles in our forward missile cell.”
“Conn, TAO. Firing solutions set.”
David looked toward Hammond as more enemy fire slammed into the Lion. “Navigation, ETA to parallel course on Master One?”
“Thirty seconds, sir.”
Almost as soon as Hammond finished her report, Ruth broke in, “Conn, TAO! Forward shield has collapsed, sir!”
David confirmed the report almost immediately on his viewer. Recalling a line from military history in which a captain of a ship long ago said, “Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead,” he pressed on. “Navigation, stay on course. Flank speed. TAO, lock all magnetic cannons into position for a full broadside.”
The Destruction continued to pound the Lion; the ship shuddered with each hit, the energy from the impacts translating into shudders and shakes. Several consoles on the bridge suffered from blown fuses and an overload blew out a power junction over the CIC. Through it all, David stared forward, his eyes going between the view of the outside, and his tactical plot. As the ship lined up for what he hoped was the final attack, he gave the order to fire. “TAO, shoot, all weapons, Master One!”
