unable to save them either. There were simply too many missiles coming in too fast for the defensive guns to track and destroy. The defensive bubble of escorts dissolved in brilliant flashes of matter/antimatter explosions. One second the escort ships were there. The next they were expanding clouds of flame and debris.
The major combatants fared only slightly better. They never had time to fire their own long-range missiles. Incoming missiles passing through the debris of the escorts flew inexorably into the massed formation of capital and support ships. The missiles chewed away at the fleet. The support ships were easily destroyed by one missile each, but the larger ships took two or more before they were totally destroyed. In minutes, the K’Rang Fleet was no longer a cohesive threat.
Several ships carried on singly, bravely, attempting to take out any Human ships in range. The carriers launched most of their fighters and attack ships. One lone, damaged missile frigate made a dash for the frontier, but it was quickly dispatched by the Rutherford’s squadron of planetary corvettes. The squadron and other escort ships moved to the frontier to provide early warning of any K’Rang reinforcements. Fleet and New Amsterdam fighters made short work of the K’Rang fighters and attack ships still remaining. No K’Rang forces made it to the planet’s surface. In less than a day, the 6664 system would be clear of any K’Rang forces.
Kelly moved through the galley, picked up another sandwich, refreshed his coffee, and resumed his position on the bridge. The captain was in his cabin. Chief Watson still had the conn.
LCDR Timmons stuck his head out of his cabin and said, “Exec, get some rest. We could be out here on patrol for weeks. Chief, get everybody back on normal watch schedule.”
Kelly closed down his station and retired to his quarters. The war would wait for him to get some rest.
He awoke in three hours, cleaned up and took his position on the bridge. The crew settled back into normal watch schedule.
Kelly reviewed the log from the previous watch. With the exception of some explosions in the Voracious’ patrol area, there was no activity, short of some uninteresting interplanetary traffic in the nearest K’Rang planetary system. The K’Rang invasion fleet had taken a bad beating from the 1st Combined Fleet.
Kelly stood his watch and had very little to show for it. The sensor section provided periodic reports on the action in the 6664 system. The K’Rang continued to take a beating. Kelly finished out his watch and turned the watch over to Chief Billings.
Awakened by Chief Watson, Kelly was asked to report to the bridge. It took only a moment for Kelly to throw some water in his face and step back onto the bridge. The tension on the bridge was thick as a fog. The captain was conferring with Chief Watson about something on his display. Kelly moved over and listened in.
“Chief, there are too many of them for us to take on by ourselves. Oh, Exec, there you are, come here and look at this.”
Kelly looked at the display and saw a formation of twenty-two warships and support ships moving in their direction. He saw four battle cruisers, four missile cruisers, four destroyers (one of them a new Shadow Scout Destroyer), eight frigates, and two support ships.
“We only have eight missiles, we can’t take them all on. Even if we get unbelievably lucky and knock out all the cruisers, the destroyers and frigates would chew us up. Even the nebula won’t protect us from a deliberate cordon and search by twelve determined ships. We’re too far away from the frontier to make a run for it. I am open to suggestions.”
Kelly was about to admit he had no clue how to take this fleet on, when he remembered something he read when researching Admiral Craddock.
“Sir, do you remember how Admiral Craddock took on the Algolians?”
A blank look came over LCDR Timmon’s face followed by realization. “I’ll be damned. I see what you mean. The Algolian Gambit! Perfect, but the K’Rang are not the Algolians. How do you propose to make this work?”
Kelly studied the display for a moment before replying, “We go after the formation from the rear to the front. We take out the support ships first with our guns. We can jump out from this nebula already at max FTL speed, drop in behind the support ships and take out their engines, then jump out to the gas giant we used earlier. We jump from there, take out the other support ship, and jump back into this nebula. We watch them react to our attack and wait. That should take them a while to sort out. If we do it right, they won’t have a clue where we came from and where we went. We should be safely inside the gas giant or nebula before their sensors are able to resolve our signature. It will require precision and our stabilizers must be working at full efficiency for us to go from power 6 to a dead stop in the space inside the safe zone of the planet’s atmosphere. We have to stop before the atmospheric pressure crushes us. If we can manage this, we should be able to knock off maybe a dozen ships. The admiral engaged 20 ships. We should be able to handle a dozen. That will leave 10 for us to take on with our missiles.”
“It’s a gutsy plan, but it gives us the best chance of success. Plot our jumps so that we come in between two ships. We can double the number of ships we can disable that way. Chief Watson, get as much stuff locked down as possible. This plan will really put a strain on the stabilizers. We don’t want things flying around if they start to go on us. We’ll secure the crew as best we can. All right, get started on locking things down. They’ll be on us soon and I want us ready as soon as they go past.”
Chief Watson called all the other chiefs together. The meeting was followed by a flurry of activity, as everything that could be stowed, tied down, or locked away was made so. In an hour the ship was secure and ready for battle.
Shadow Leader M’Trang reviewed the reports coming in from the 27th Battle Fleet. The Humans had somehow managed to move a large force into the Scutum sector and they were engaging the 27th Fleet to devastating result. He keyed his communicator and attempted to contact the Sector Command Ship that should be in the vicinity. There was no response.
He realized that if the Command Ship was not responding, it was probably destroyed. The Command Ships had communications redundancies. He considered his options and formulated a plan.
There were three reinforcing battle fleets converging on New Alexandria. He contacted all three fleet commanders and coordinated their arrival at New Alexandria. His appointment as provisional governor of New Alexandria made him the senior commander. They would converge simultaneously and hit the Humans from three sides with a withering fire. They could bring over 3000 long-range missiles to bear on the Human fleet. It would be simple to continue in with their long-range heavy guns and take out any survivors.
He ordered the fleet to slow to give time for the other battle fleets to move into their positions for the coordinated attack.
LCDR Timmons and Kelly had used the time to calculate jump points in preparation for the attack. Sensors had picked these ships up at maximum range and there were over two hours of tracking data to work from. The K’Rang fleet formation had not changed for the entire time they approached. The escorts were arrayed around the four battlecruisers. An outer ring of frigates surrounded the fleet. Next inside this ring, at the front of the formation were the four destroyers. They were the short range defensive ships for the battlecruisers.
In the center of the formation were the four battlecruisers, followed by the missile cruisers. The battlecruisers were the heavy punch of the formation. They were equipped with guns and missiles, heavy armor and shielding. The missile cruisers were the fast, long-range punch of the formation and only lightly armored. They each carried hundreds of extended-range missiles designed to take out large capital ships. If this fleet crossed the frontier, it could do serious damage to the 1st Combined Fleet. Trailing the missile cruisers were the two logistics ships, inside the frigate screen.
Their plan was to take out the two support ships in the first jump. Hopefully, one or two of the frigates would stay with them as the fleet moved off. Chief B’s viruses and trojan horses would be deployed into the formation’s C3I system, if possible. Next they would take out two of the missile cruisers. The next pass would go after the other two missile cruisers. Their goal would be to disable the engines and leave them drifting or moving at such slow speed that they couldn’t engage in combat.
Follow-on jumps would attempt to take out some of the frigates. If they could knock off half of the frigates, they’d be in good shape for the next jump, in which they would unleash half the missiles, one per battlecruiser. If they were that successful, maybe the K’Rang would retreat to lick their wounds.
Chief Watson told the captain that the ship was secure and ready for combat. He thanked him and ordered
