July 1, 2394 AD
Ross 128, Arcadia Orbital QMT Facility
Friday, 2:45 PM, Earth Eastern Standard Time
'DeathRay and the enemy ship have vanished, Admiral!' the STO shouted from the science and technology officer's station. 'Sir! We've got missiles launched from the planet and the facility!'
'Plot the trajectories for me, Captain Freeman,' RADM Wallace Jefferson ordered his STO. 'And see if you can detect what type of warheads they are.'
'Aye, sir! Coming to you now. They're nukes, Admiral.'
Wallace had the entire sphere of the battlescape in his mindview and could see the missiles firing up from the planet at near the speed of light. They were only a second away and not a lot he could do about them other than hope and pray that the ship's SIFs and armored hull plating held in place against the tactical nuclear warheads about to detonate against them.
'Full power to the SIF generators!' he shouted. There was no time for a hyperspace jaunt. 'All countermeasures fire! Nav, evasive maneuvers! And keep the facility between us and the planet below!'
'Aye, sir!'
Uncle Timmy sounded the bosun's pipe over the ship's 1-MC intercom. 'All hands, all hands, brace for impact and incoming fire. All hands, brace for impact.'
'Larry!'
'Sir!'
'See if you can get me some analysis of that ship that was just here! I hope they don't have more of those.' The first wave of missiles hit before the evasive maneuvers and countermeasures could have any effect, and Wallace gritted his teeth.
A handful of the missiles slammed against the starboard hull structural integrity fields with multiple tens of kilotons each. The explosions rippled the SIF barrier fields with an opalescent blue wave of light. Seven smaller missiles hit random locations across the belly of the supercarrier. But unlike a turtle or an alligator, the belly of the
'COB, check on my ship!' the admiral ordered the chief of the boat. The impact of the missiles rocked the ship upward and to port. The internal inertial dampening fields kicked in and reduced the effect of the missiles' impact. The crew was still tossed about a bit, but they had seen worse, much worse. These missiles had merely caught them off guard. The countermeasures should take care of the next wave.
'Aye, Admiral.' Command Master Chief Charlie Green finished his coffee and was out the hatch in double-time. The COB would take care of the ship; that was his job, and he was good at it. Wallace had to focus on the fighting and taking that QMT facility.
'XO! Get the troops deployed!'
'You heard the admiral! Air Boss, why ain't the Gods of War already out? Ground Boss, get those drop tubes moving. I want the AEMs, AAIs, and the Warlords on the ground five seconds ago!' the XO shouted in his gravelly voice at the appropriate bridge crew members. It was his job to make certain that things got done right the first time so the admiral could focus on what to do next.
'Aye, sir!'
'Gunnery Officer of the Deck!' the admiral called out. The youngest member of the bridge crew looked a little nervous.
'Sir!' Lieutenant Junior Grade Guy Hall replied.
'Fire at will at any potential targets. But do not, I repeat, do not destroy that QMT facility!'
'Aye, sir!'
'Nav!'
'Aye?'
'Take us in closer than we had planned. If we scrape the surface of the facility, then maybe that'll keep those missiles from the planet off of us.' RADM Wallace Jefferson sat back into the captain's chair and tapped at some of the sensor controls on the chair arm's console. He widened the DTM view of the battlescape in his mind all the way out to beyond the moons of Arcadia. There were three moons of appreciable size, not counting the QMT facility, though it was mostly artificial. Or, if he recalled right, it was half an asteroid that had been tugged there from the rings of the gas giant that Arcadia orbited. The artificial moon
