them assist in the defense of the planet. Put them under the control of that admiral if we have to.”
“Yes, Mr. Debran.”
Kelly saw an opportunity to draw first blood. He watched the K’Rang fleet move further into the cluster. As the last of the trailing frigates moved into the cluster, the missile corvette moved up to the entrance. Kelly concluded he must be their communications relay back to the main worlds. Kelly couldn’t let that continue. He gave the K’Rang fleet an hour to get into the first kill box, cut off from retreat, and then he would take this guy out.
Kelly called up the specs on this corvette and realized he had taken on a later model of this type before. In fact, it was an engagement with three of these that got him kicked out of Fighter Force and allowed him to be where he was now.
Connie, sensing Kelly was lost in thought, asked him if something was wrong.
Kelly slipped out of his reverie and said, “See that guy out there? I took three of them out once when I was still in fighters. It saved my carrier, but got me booted out of Fighter Force.”
“How did that happen, sir? I mean we’ve all heard rumors, but none of us know what really happened.”
Kelly checked his sensor feed to see where the lead destroyers were in the cluster, realized he still had about an hour before the first trap sprang, and started his tale.
“We had a general in the Fighter Force that thought she was a modern day Marshall Ney, Napoleon’s cavalry chief. She kept looking up historical battles and drawing all the wrong conclusions. She thought she was being innovative and classical at the same time. No matter what she saw in these old battles, she always set up our operations in the most restrictive manner possible. It was as if she didn’t trust us to think on our own. She had a tendency to trust the technology more than the mind operating it. Have you ever heard of the wall of fire tactic?”
“Yes, sir, we covered it in tactics training in the Academy, but that was obsolete over a decade ago.”
“Well General Bugarov thought of it as her master stroke.”
“Oh, Bugger Off! Everyone on Antares Base has heard of her.”
Kelly frowned, then continued, “She called for a fleet-wide fighter defense exercise and set it up to run near the K’Rang frontier, to demonstrate our capabilities. My carrier and two others were to play the blue force and two carriers were to play the red force. I was a 2nd LT and had the temerity to ask if the wall of fire didn’t make us vulnerable to an enemy that would stack forces against one sector until they overpowered the defense and punched through. I had my head handed to me. She had my squadron commander personally remind me to keep in formation in our mission briefing.”
“Well, that was not to be my lucky day. As we moved out to our squadron defensive position on the backside of the fleet, my damage simulator went offline as if I’d been shot down. I drifted in space with my nav lights blinking and limited maneuver control. I was told to wait for the recovery team to come out and get me. That would have been an hour wait until the combat phase was competed.”
“I tried everything I could think of to get the damage sim to recycle, but nothing worked. I even had Wanda reason with it. That didn’t work, either. That’s when I saw the K’Rang. There were three missile corvettes like our friend over there. All I saw was a star blink on and off as one moved in front of it.”
“Wanda was able to resolve what they were and how far off. We convinced the damage sim to release the ship back to me if they crossed the border, which they did. I took out the three corvettes, and my reward when I got back on board the Bolivar was to be read court martial charges by the General. The Fleet Commander put a stop to that and awarded me the Space Medal for saving his flagship.”
“General Bugarov expelled me from Fighter Force and sent me to Antares in exile. I ran into Captain Hasslerode, and he convinced me that Scout Force might be the place for me. The rest is history.”
“Thank you, sir, that answers a lot of questions.”
The K’Rang fleet moved beyond the distance where they could turn back and support the corvette. Kelly had the navigator make some calculations on what it would take to make an FTL run at the corvette and stop just amidships. The navigator made some quick calculations and announced it could be done at FTL power 1. Kelly instructed him to pass the course, speed and braking point to the helm. The helm acknowledged. Kelly told the gunner to get ready with all guns. The gunner locked all guns forward and said he was ready.
“Helm, execute.”
The K’Rang corvette sensor operators had no warning. One moment their sensors were clear, the next there was a Human Scout ship off their starboard side. Nine guns opened fire at once and blasted a hole clean through the corvette. Kelly could see stars through the gaping hole. They were doomed. No airtight doors could save them. Explosive decompression boiled the blood of the K’Rang crew and killed them almost instantaneously, if not painlessly. As the K’Rang ship was wracked with secondary explosions, Kelly ordered the helm to their next hide position.
Kelly walked back to the galley for fresh coffee and to check with sensors on the status of any other combatants in the vicinity. Chief Johnson reported no contacts other than the K’Rang fleet in the cluster. Kelly had Chief Johnson inform him the second the 3rd ALG sprang the first trap.
Kelly didn’t have long to wait, as the K’Rang fleet was moving faster than expected. The first trap in the cluster was a web of stealth mines across the most direct and widest path. When the leading destroyer lost part of its bow to a mine, the autonomous mines behind the rear of the formation moved out to block off their escape. Torpedo ships swarmed out from behind a brown dwarf on the starboard side of the fleet and let loose with all torpedoes. 56 torpedoes spread out and locked in on the major combatants. As the fleet launched defensive missiles to ward off the torpedoes, an A-76 squadron left the cover of a brown dwarf on the port side of the fleet and launched 144 medium missiles at the penned in K’Rang. Further defensive missiles left the ships and sped out to intercept the incoming missiles. The torpedo ships and A-76s pulled away and flew to land on the Golden Eagle to reload.
Only ten torpedoes and twelve missiles made it through the K’Rang defensive fire to a target. One frigate took two torpedoes amidships and was ripped in two by the combined explosions. A second frigate lost all gun and missile mounts forward of the bridge. A light cruiser lost its stern and drifted in space venting gases, a total loss. Secondary explosions ripped large chunks off the ship and sent them off through the cluster. The immobile lead destroyer received three medium missiles and ceased to exist. The antimatter warheads tore the ship into small pieces. One support ship lost its stern to a medium missile. Four and a half ships destroyed or damaged was not a bad result.
Kelly watched as the destroyer and three remaining cruisers methodically blasted the space in front of them to open a path through the minefield. Slowly and by twos, the K’Rang fleet passed out of the kill zone.
Fleet Commander J’Kalt called for damage reports. Four ships were total losses and one partially damaged, but still underway. He would have to move slower now and fire on every possible hide location. He couldn’t let the Humans dictate his maneuvers. He had to find a way to get out of this tunnel they were leaving open for him and find a clear path. The Shadow Destroyer was picking up terrestrial comms ahead, so there must be a base out there.
As J’Kalt analyzed his current situation, the Shadow Destroyer reported they had come to a dead end. Gravity was increasing and they must turn around. As J’Kalt gave the order to reverse course three assault landing carriers appeared from behind a series of four brown dwarves and opened fire on the four rear guard frigates and support ships. Their plasma guns, designed to send plasma bubbles at hyper velocity speed through a planet’s atmosphere and destroy defensive positions, burned through the hulls of three support ships and a frigate. The burnt husks of the four ships floated off into the gravity well of a brown dwarf and were sent into a slow spiraling orbit. The Human assault landing carriers turned and disappeared into the cluster.
J’Kalt ordered the three remaining rear guard frigates to pursue the carriers, but a squadron of A-76s was waiting for that. They killed two of the frigates and chased the third away. J’Kalt ordered his remaining fleet to move out of the dead end and form up in an all around defense.
The three assault landing carrier commanders were elated. They had just done what tacticians will tell you shouldn’t be done. They had intentionally put their ships into harms way. Normally carriers of any kind never see the enemy directly. Oh, they may see fighters or attack ships, but never main combatants. CDR Milton was the most
