be felt even this far from the power generators. He watched the burst of whitish-blue energy as it blasted from the twin guns and hurtled towards the enemy. Streaks of similar fire erupted from the other guns, all at the same target. With just a thought, the optical unit zoomed in closer to the target so that it filled his view. The first bursts of fire arrived, of which only four rounds actually hit home. He almost jumped up for joy as one of his projectiles struck eight metres from the port engine nacelle. A blue flash indicated a powerful hit from the weapon, and he smiled with pride as a section of at least fifteen metres tore away from the ship.
“Keep firing!” called out Lieutenant Devereux.
Xenophon pulled the triggers and fired another series of paired blasts. The rest of the gunners did the same, each of them pulverising the enemy vessel. Flashes of plasma lit up the hull until a mighty coloured pulse tore the craft apart. A cheer rang out through the ship, and Xenophon felt a surge of excitement in his blood.
“It’s a decoy vessel. All crews, charge your guns, it’s a trick!” shouted the Captain. His voice ran throughout the command centre and gundecks. The calm voice of Lieutenant Devereux spoke into his communication node.
“Gunners, recharge from the capacitors. Check for enemy vessels.”
Xenophon ignored the commotion on the command deck and did as he had been ordered. With his wide arc of fire, he could check his area of space. The other gunners did the same, and each checked their segment of space for an elusive ship that might have blocked their sensors. It was strange that so many hundreds of years after the development of direct energy weapons and reliable FTL technology, the crew were still forced to rely on using their eyes. As he looked for the enemy, he tried to understand why the Captain might think the enemy ship, now smashed to a hundred pieces, might be a decoy. Perhaps there were no life signs, or there was something it transmitted. The more he thought about it, the more he desperately wanted to know. Being stuck in a single role, without access to all the information around him, was proving to be stifling.
Then he spotted it. At first it was just a flicker of the stars, much like looking at astronomical objects from his home. The atmosphere of the planet between him and space would cause the stars to flicker and change in the more subtle of ways.
What is it? It has to be them, it must be. He was wary of speaking out in case it was a false alarm. He couldn’t keep it quiet any longer though.
“Lieutenant, I think I’ve got something!” he called out.
Lieutenant Devereux connected to his computer system and looked down at the object Xenophon was looking at.
“Where is it?” she asked, a hint of desperation in her voice.
Please be something. He worried that he was wasting the crew’s time but also wanted to impress her.
Xenophon drew a mental box around the anomaly that was immediately added to her own computer display. It was a faster way of communicating than simply trying to point it out on a display, or even worse, attempting to explain with words.
“Good work,” she said and actually smiled at him.
Yes! Something right, for a change, he thought happily.
“Sir, something is out there,” she said, her tone of voice less convinced than Xenophon would have liked. As if to answer her, the Tactical Officer spoke quickly.
“Jump signature, something is coming in!”
Xenophon rechecked his display and spotted more shapes rush past their position. The blurred shapes took form as an enemy formation shut down its FTL engines. There was always a brief moment between the engines being deactivated and the ship approaching normal speed, where the subject would be blurred and indistinct. It lasted the briefest of times but could give those waiting an advantage, if only for a moment. At first, he couldn’t make out the shape, but then he recognised the silhouette from his training back at the fleet headquarters.
That looks like a drone carrier.
It was one of the largest military ships he had ever seen and easily the size of an Alliance cruiser. From memory, these ships were used to command small strike forces. It was rare they travelled alone, and if he was right, it could be a serious problem.
Lieutenant Devereux had already sent the data to the Captain.
“Good work, Xenophon,” she said. “It’s definitely a drone carrier, and probably leading a small force to wipe out our scouts, one group at a time.”
“That why they left a derelict to draw us in?” he asked.
She nodded, but he couldn’t tell if she was impressed or irritated by his questions. Either way, they were interrupted buy the voice of the Captain.
“All crew, prepare for FTL jump. Gunners keep the carrier busy until we’re underway.”
Xenophon could sense the worry in the Captain’s voice. He could see why, as he watched three-dozen drones detach from the ship and set an intercept course with their own small formation of ships. The drones were small, perhaps ten metres, maybe slightly more. They were fast and lightly armed, no match for heavy fighters but easily able to swamp a few frigates, given enough time. As he watched them, he forgot to check his own tactical display. It was too late when he finally spotted the lock errors on the system.
“No, no!” he cried to himself. The gun tracking system shutdown as powerful enemy countermeasures saturated their vessel. It was a textbook attack, and it had rendered the entire targeting matrix defunct.
“It’s the drones,” explained Lieutenant Devereux. “Switch to manual gunnery and look for the Wild Weasel drones. Take them out.”
A cloud of plasma rounds scattered the formation of drones, but they were already in range. The computer- controlled attack aircraft rolled with speed and precision that made his gunnery harder and harder. He looked at the first group of six, staring intently to find the illusive Wild Weasel craft. They were specially modified to suppress air defences and destroy the frigates capacity to destroy other drones. Blasts of energy fired from the guns of the drones struck their own frigate, but he was able to draw two into his sights.
He managed to hit the first, a standard interceptor drone with two direct impacts. One plasma round was easily capable of destroying a drone, and the two simply vaporised the craft, causing enough damage to a second that it spun wildly out of control before finally self-destructing. He tried to track the rest of the formation, but it passed the ship and moved off to the port side. The automated turrets did their best to track them using optical systems, but with radar, microwave and thermal targeting all jammed, the system was severely limited. Only one more drone was hit as they moved out of sight.
A dull rumble indicated a number of hits to the hull, but he had no idea how serious it might be. He scanned his area of space for more hostiles and was drawn to one of their destroyers. Three smouldering holes in the hull showed where one of the drones had rammed the armour and caused catastrophic damage to the vessel.
Gods, how many men and women? One of the gundecks tore apart, and he tried to imagine how terrible it would be inside that ship. With no air, freezing temperatures and no gravity, it would be a terrible death in the void of space. His attention was brought back by another flash to his left. It indicated the arrival of more ships. The FTP drives must have been charging up as he could feel the rumble through the hull of the ship. One of the frigates to his right disappeared. As he watched the area of space it had vacated, he spotted the shapes of the newly arrived ships coalesced into mighty warships. Xenophon didn’t recognise all of them, but he did spot at least a dozen cruisers, of which at least four were definitely Laconian in design. As they arrived in position, each vessel opened fire. The powerful streaks of energy from their massed batteries sent colour pulse and beams out to their opponents.
“Jump in 5…4…3…2…1…now!” called the helmsman. Xenophon could feel a dull throbbing in his skull as the FTL drive powered up, and with a thump they hurtled away from the battle. In just a few seconds the feeling resumed, and they were back in position around their base in the Nebula.
“All stations report in,” called the Captain.
Xenophon sat there quietly, an empty feeling washing over him. He had played his part in the battle, but once the warships had moved in, they had left. He wanted to know how the battle had turned out. The capital ships were the pride of the colonies, and he had spotted just a glimpse of them before the small vessel jumped back to safe space.
“This is the Captain. Good work people. We left one frigate behind, but we did our job. We were there to draw in their drone ships. Fleet is mopping up, and I am pleased to let you know the battle is progressing well.”
